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diff --git a/78829-0.txt b/78829-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..10fa1b2 --- /dev/null +++ b/78829-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5947 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78829 *** + + + + +[Illustration: FRANCIS E. CLARK] + + + + + THE GREAT SIBERIAN RAILWAY + + WHAT I SAW ON MY JOURNEY + + BY DR. F. E. CLARK + + WITH SIXTY-FIVE ILLUSTRATIONS + FROM PHOTOGRAPHS AND A MAP + + =London= + S. W. PARTRIDGE AND CO. + 8 & 9, PATERNOSTER ROW + 1904 + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + I. FROM NEW YORK TO VLADIVOSTOCK 1 + + II. THE METROPOLIS OF THE NORTHEAST 13 + + III. RIDING ON THE RAIL IN SIBERIA 25 + + IV. FROM VLADIVOSTOCK TO KHABAROFFSK 39 + + V. THE _BARON KORFF_ 50 + + VI. THE LORDLY AMOUR 61 + + VII. BETWEEN TWO GREAT NATIONS 74 + + VIII. A SIBERIAN CAPITAL 86 + + IX. AGROUND IN THE AMOUR 101 + + X. ON THE SHILKA 114 + + XI. THE TRANS-BAIKAL 129 + + XII. THE HOLY SEA 144 + + XIII. A SIBERIAN CITY OF CHURCHES 156 + + XIV. A SIBERIAN _TRAIN DE LUXE_ 166 + + XV. OUT OF ASIA INTO EUROPE 180 + + SOME FACTS AND FIGURES 194 + + ENGLISH-RUSSIAN GLOSSARY 201 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + + FRANCIS E. CLARK _Frontispiece_ + + CATHEDRAL AT VLADIVOSTOCK _Facing p._ 4 + + DRY-DOCK AT VLADIVOSTOCK ” 6 + + HARBOR OF VLADIVOSTOCK ” 10 + + GROUP OF KOREAN WORKMEN, VLADIVOSTOCK ” 12 + + GENERAL TCHITCHAGOFF ” 18 + + GENERAL VIEW OF VLADIVOSTOCK ” 22 + + STATION OF KORFOVSKIA, EASTERN SIBERIA, SHOWING AMERICAN + LOCOMOTIVE ” 26 + + “WHO’LL BUY MY FLOWERS?” ” 30 + + VILLAGE OF VIAZEMSKOI, EASTERN SIBERIA ” 32 + + THROUGH THE FOREST IN EASTERN SIBERIA ” 34 + + CITY OF KHABAROFFSK, ON THE AMOUR RIVER ” 38 + + FATHER ALEXANDER AND STATION-MASTER AT NIKOLSKOIE ” 42 + + A PATHETIC SIBERIAN VILLAGE GRAVEYARD ” 46 + + THE OLD WAY BY THE “SHIP OF THE DESERT” ” 48 + + THE _BARON KORFF_ ” 50 + + EMBARKING ON AN AMOUR RIVER STEAMER ” 54 + + ON THE SHORE OF THE AMOUR ” 58 + + A PRISON BARGE ” 62 + + A SIBERIAN RIVER TOWN IN WINTER ” 66 + + A THUNDER-STORM BY NIGHT ON THE AMOUR ” 70 + + ON THE BANKS OF THE AMOUR ” 74 + + SOME OF OUR FELLOW-TRAVELLERS. SIBERIAN EMIGRANTS ON THE + AMOUR ” 78 + + SOME OTHER FELLOW-PASSENGERS. RUSSIAN OFFICERS AND THEIR + FAMILIES ” 80 + + A TRIUMPHAL ARCH IN HONOR OF THE CZAREWITCH’S JOURNEY + THROUGH SIBERIA ” 82 + + A MODEST TRIUMPHAL ARCH AT A LITTLE SIBERIAN VILLAGE ” 84 + + “EACH WOMAN HUGGING TWO OR THREE BOTTLES OF MILK” ” 86 + + THE LEADING HOTEL, BLAGAVESTCHENSK ” 90 + + THE CEMETERY AT BLAGAVESTCHENSK ” 92 + + ONE OF BLAGAVESTCHENSK’S BEAUTIFUL CHURCHES ” 94 + + A GREAT DEPARTMENT STORE IN BLAGAVESTCHENSK, WITH + MARKET-PLACE IN FRONT ” 96 + + AN UPPER AMOUR RIVER STEAMER ” 98 + + ON THE UPPER AMOUR ” 100 + + TUMBLING ASHORE FROM THE _ADMIRAL CHICACHOFF_ ” 102 + + CHILDREN OF EMIGRANTS PICKING WILD FLOWERS ON THE BANKS + OF THE AMOUR ” 106 + + AN EMIGRANT HOUSE ON THE UPPER AMOUR ” 108 + + THE MEN BEHIND THE BARS ON THE PRISON BARGE ” 110 + + THE HILL-SIDES WERE CARPETED WITH FLOWERS ” 114 + + A TYPICAL WATER-TOWER ON THE TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY ” 116 + + THE LIGNITE CLIFFS ON THE AMOUR ” 118 + + THE EVER-PRESENT SAMOVAR ” 122 + + SOME FIFTH-CLASS PEOPLE ” 124 + + A RAFT ON THE SHILKA ” 126 + + SIBERIAN RECRUITS BOUND FOR CHINA ” 130 + + FOR THIRTY-SIX MORTAL HOURS WE WAITED ” 132 + + A TRANS-BAIKAL TRAIN. PRISONERS CARRYING WATER ” 134 + + BOUND FOR FAR SIBERIA ” 138 + + FIFTEEN MINUTES AT EVERY STATION ” 140 + + PRISON CAR IN SIBERIA. FAMILIES OF PRISONERS AT THE WINDOWS ” 142 + + THE ELEPHANT’S NOSE, LAKE BAIKAL ” 146 + + THE ICE-BREAKER ON LAKE BAIKAL ” 150 + + THE SHORES OF LAKE BAIKAL ” 154 + + BURIATS FROM LAKE BAIKAL, WITH SEAL FROM THE LAKE ” 158 + + AN IRKUTSK DROSKY ” 160 + + GENERAL VIEW OF IRKUTSK ” 162 + + ONE OF THE BEAUTIFUL CHURCHES OF IRKUTSK ” 166 + + A PART OF OUR _TRAIN DE LUXE_ ” 170 + + A VIEW ON THE ANGARA, NEAR IRKUTSK ” 174 + + A TRAINMAN WHO HAS TAKEN THE VEIL ” 176 + + SIBERIAN RAILWAY NEAR THE ASIATIC BORDER ” 178 + + ZLATOOST, A BORDER TOWN BETWEEN EUROPE AND ASIA ” 182 + + IN THE URAL MOUNTAINS ” 186 + + THE KREMLIN IN WINTER ” 190 + + A SHRINE AT A RAILWAY STATION ” 194 + + RUSSIAN TYPES ” 196 + + MAP SHOWING THE AUTHOR’S ROUTE FROM VLADIVOSTOCK ACROSS + SIBERIA TO ST. PETERSBURG ” 200 + + + + +BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION + + +This volume describes the last six weeks of a long journey undertaken +in the interests of the Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor. + +Mrs. Clark and myself having been invited to attend various conventions +of the society in Japan and China, we started for the far East, +accompanied by our little son Harold, a boy of twelve years, in the +early days of January, 1900. + +The conventions were, beyond our expectations, large in numbers, +enthusiastic in interest, and important in their results; but they +cannot be described in this volume. + +Knowing that a new all-steam route around the world was to be opened by +the completion of the Trans-Siberian Railway to the head of navigation +on the Shilka River, and having important engagements at the World’s +Christian Endeavor Convention, which was to meet in London in July, we +determined not to follow the beaten tracks around the world which we +had before taken, but to attempt this new route, which binds Asia and +Europe, the Pacific with the Atlantic. + +The last meetings of the series we had gone to the far East to attend +were held in north China, in Tientsin, Peking, Tungchow, and Poatingfu, +only a few days before the terrible uprising which bids fair to make +such momentous changes in the map of the world. + +The meetings being over and our object in visiting China being +accomplished, we left Taku, as it proved, by the last steamer that +sailed for Corea before the bombardment of the forts of Taku and the +siege of Tientsin. + +For nearly two weeks we coasted around the peninsula of Corea, stopping +at Chemulpo, Mokpo, Fusan, and Wonsan, or Gensan, as the last-named +port is indifferently called. + +At Fusan, at the southern extremity of Corea, we spent four days +waiting for a steamer to take us up the coast, and here, in soil +already prepared, the first Christian Endeavor Society of Corea was +planted in a church of the Australian Presbyterian Mission. + +At length we reached Vladivostock, and our long journey across the +Siberian plains by rail and river began. + +At Taku our party had been pleasantly enlarged by the addition of +Miss Anna Northend Benjamin, of New York, a well-known lecturer and +newspaper correspondent, on her way home from the Philippines. + +At Wonsan, in Corea, Mr. J. M. Jordan, British Consul-General to Corea, +and Mr. Burn Murdock, a mining expert, became our fellow-passengers. + +At Khabaroffsk Mr. J. C. Smith, a leading merchant of Nagasaki, who +was accompanied by Mrs. Smith, took the same steamer; also Baron +Hartogensis, of Germany, and Herr Ritter, Swiss Consul-General to +Japan, all of whom, with one or two other foreigners (non-Russians), +afterwards formed themselves into the “Never Again Society,” to whom +this book is dedicated. + +Interest is perhaps added to this journey from the fact that we were +the first Americans, and in all probability the first foreigners, to go +around the world by the new route. The trans-Siberian all-steam route +had been opened but a few days when we took passage at Vladivostock, +as I have explained in an early chapter, and none of the few who had +preceded us across Siberia by this route had completed the circuit of +the globe. + +If this fact is borne in mind, it will explain some of the difficulties +inevitably incidental to a new and untried route. + +I wish gratefully to acknowledge the courtesy of their Excellencies the +Russian Ministers Plenipotentiary to Japan and China, and to General +Tchitchagoff, the Governor of Vladivostock and the Primorskaia, for +their kind assistance in a journey which, were it not for their aid, +would have been far more difficult and tedious. + +It is also fair to add that already, in the minds of some at least +of the “Never Again Society,” the discomforts and delays of the +journey have faded into the unremembered Past, which so kindly and so +quickly touches our little woes with the finger of oblivion, while its +novelties and pleasures stand out in ever-bolder and happier relief. +If the above-mentioned society were canvassed to-day, it would not be +at all surprising if its members should unanimously resolve themselves +into a + + “_Some Time Again Society_.” + +BOSTON, _February 2, 1901_. + + + + +A NEW WAY AROUND AN OLD WORLD + + + + +I + +FROM NEW YORK TO VLADIVOSTOCK + + +The completion of a new way around this old world is a matter of no +little interest and moment. Such a new way has just been opened, and +it was my fortune to be one of the first five passengers who took this +journey. + +On the 28th of December, 1899, the last rail was laid on the +trans-Baikal section of the Siberian Railway, which for the present +will stop at Stretinsk, and there connect with the steamers on the +Shilka, a branch of the Amour River, for Khabaroffsk, where again +railway communication is resumed for a further journey of five +hundred miles to Vladivostock, on the Sea of Japan. Thus across all of +Russia’s vast domain in Europe and Asia it is possible to go by steam, +a distance of considerably more than six thousand miles, as the route +is now traversed by river and by rail. My own route was in the other +direction, from east to west--from Vladivostock to St. Petersburg. + +Though, as I have said, the last rail of the trans-Baikal section of +the road was laid on December 28, 1899, the Amour and its tributaries +were then frozen, and no steam communication could be had until spring +unloosed the icy fetters. The rivers did not open this year until the +middle of May, and on the 31st day of May I reached Vladivostock, and +on the 1st day of June took passage at Khabaroffsk, on the Amour River +steamer _Baron Korff_, for the long journey across the Russias. + +I mention this fact because the newness of the route will account for +some of the crude and primitive accommodations that will be alluded to +further on in this story. + +To be sure, many other travellers had crossed Siberia from Vladivostock +to St. Petersburg, but the journey could not, before May of 1900, be +done by uninterrupted steam travel, and thus one more way of going +around the world by the aid of the all-compelling steam-engine has been +added to the two that already existed. + +For many years it has been possible to steam around the Cape of Good +Hope and stormy Cape Horn from New York back to New York again. For a +generation it has been possible to take the shorter cut by rail across +the American continent and by steamer through the Suez Canal. Now a +third steam route has been opened which reduces the ocean journey to a +minimum, and, for the first time in history, makes the portion of the +journey by land considerably longer than the portion by sea. + +This is surely good news for bad sailors. + +Roughly speaking, this way around the world involves about thirteen +thousand miles of railroad or river travel, and nine thousand miles of +sea travel. Approximately, these distances may be divided as follows: + + MILES. + By rail from New York to San Francisco 3000 + By ocean from San Francisco to Yokohama 5000 + By rail from Yokohama to Nagasaki 800 + By ocean from Nagasaki to Vladivostock 1000 + By rail (and river) from Vladivostock to Liverpool 9000 + By ocean from Liverpool to New York 3000 + +I need dwell but briefly on our journey from New York to Vladivostock, +for, so far as Nagasaki at least, it is getting to be as commonplace +as a trip across the Atlantic steam ferry. As a matter of fact, it +occupied us more than four months, owing to various detours in Japan +and China for the sake of attending Christian Endeavor conventions +which had called me to the far East. This part of the journey, however, +might have been easily accomplished in twenty-five days--five days +across the American continent, eighteen days from San Francisco to +Yokohama, and two days from Yokohama to Nagasaki. + +[Illustration: CATHEDRAL AT VLADIVOSTOCK] + +Here the novel part of the journey begins. We at once get out of the +beaten path of the globe-trotter. He halts on the southern edge of +Japan, or, perhaps, more often keeps on eastward across the choppy +Yellow Sea to Shanghai, and thence, if he is really a _globe_-trotter, +on to Hong Kong, the Straits, Colombo, and Suez. + +In the future, however, the stream of world-encirclers is likely to +divide at Nagasaki, one part of the stream flowing east and south over +the old channel, the other flowing east and north over the new route +which, less than three weeks ago as I write these words, was opened up +around “this goodly frame the earth.” + +By this latter route, which I am about to describe, the traveller +sails from one glorious harbor to another--from Nagasaki to Fusan, +Corea; to Wonsan, Corea; to Vladivostock, Russia. In all of them “the +navies of the world might ride,” according to the old platitude, and +on this coast, without much doubt, will be the naval battle-field of +the future, when the Titans get ready to measure their sea-power one +against another in the struggle for Corea or China. + +We took passage on a little Japanese steamer, the _Ise Maru_, which +runs between Kobe and Vladivostock, and which belongs to the Nippon +Yushen Kaisha, the largest steamship company in the world, with +steamers plying to America and Europe and Shanghai and Hong Kong, +besides to the innumerable ports up and down the coast of Japan. + +Many of the steamers are large and fine, but the _Ise Maru_ is not one +of these. She is, however, clean and fairly comfortable, and we will +not complain, as the journey is a short one of less than a thousand +miles. + +[Illustration: DRY-DOCK AT VLADIVOSTOCK] + +A prejudice against Japanese captains and chief officers exists among +many foreigners, who will not sail, if they can help it, except on +ships manned by European officers. I must say that I do not share +this prejudice. I have sailed with more than one Japanese captain and +crew, and I have invariably found them polite and exceedingly attentive +to the comfort of their passengers, and, so far as I could judge, +excellent seamen, leaning always to the side of caution in navigating +the treacherous rock-bound coasts. As a matter of fact, the steamers +that have been lost in these eastern seas have usually been officered +by Europeans, and not by Japanese. + +Half of the steamers of the Nippon Yushen Kaisha are officered by +Japanese, and half by Europeans, and the latter have been by far the +most unfortunate. + +So, casting prejudice and fear to the winds, and trusting in Providence +for a safe voyage, we set sail, and, twenty-four hours out of Nagasaki, +approached the bold shores of Corea, no longer the hermit nation, but +open now at a dozen doors to the commerce of the world. + +Fusan, at the southwestern corner of the peninsula, is one of these +open doors, a door, in fact, which has long been open, for the Japanese +for three hundred years have here kept at least a foot in the doorway +for their own ingress and egress. + +Fusan is in every sense a Japanese port. The Japanese have been here so +long that they have even trained the great pine-trees along the streets +and on the temple hill to grow in picturesque Japanese fashion, and +their shops, their banners, their Shinto shrines, their good roads, +all proclaim their long occupation. The only Americans in Fusan are +found in a small colony of faithful missionaries, whose homes, on a +picturesque hill between the Japanese and Corean cities of Fusan, are +conspicuous for miles around. The next day after her arrival the _Ise +Maru_ weighed anchor again and, shaping her course due north, made +for the port of Wonsan, on the Corean coast, midway between Fusan and +Vladivostock, and about three hundred miles from either port. + +Wonsan, like Fusan, possesses a magnificent harbor, entirely landlocked +and surrounded by imposing hills. No wonder that Russia, as well as +Japan, has cast covetous eyes upon this splendid port, but to all +appearances Japan has the inside track, for here, as in Fusan, she has +securely seated herself, has built her houses and shops and wharves and +temples, and owns more of the shipping that visits the harbor than all +other nations combined. + +A few hours only were given to Wonsan, and again the whistle of the +_Ise_ shrieked, the anchor was hoisted to the bows, and the little ship +ploughed her way once more up the bold Corean coast, to make the last +loop in her frequently interrupted voyage. One of these days Corea, I +believe, will be a favorite haunt of pleasure-seekers and tourists. The +coastline is magnificently indented with bays and gulfs, the interior +is one series of grand mountains and lovely valleys, the west coast +is lined with charming islands that form almost a continuous break +to the winds and waves, while the east coast, though without many +islands, furnishes equally fine scenery and unrivalled delights for +the mountaineer on the shore and the yachtsman on the sea. The people +are poor, primitive, and, it must be confessed, dirty, but are kind, +courteous, and even courtly, and, in their white linen clothes and +queer horse-hair hats, are most picturesque and interesting--far more +so than their neighbors in China, _me judice_. + +[Illustration: HARBOR OF VLADIVOSTOCK] + +But we are bound for Siberia, and must not in this chapter linger in +Corea. Early on the morning of May 29th, five days out from Nagasaki, +the passengers of the _Ise Maru_ awoke to find themselves in still +another magnificent landlocked harbor. One glance at the shore where +stands Vladivostock, the “Magic City,” showed them that they had left +Mongolia and Mongolians behind them, and, though still in Asia, and on +the extreme eastern verge of Asia, were in an Asia owned and dominated +by Europeans. Large blocks of brick and stone crown the hills on +which the town is situated. A great white house flying the admiral’s +flag occupies the most commanding site. A beautiful Greek church, +with trim minarets, stands near by. The Russian tricolor is flying +everywhere. We had left behind, as completely as though we had sailed +to another planet, the mud huts of Corea, the slight one-story wooden +houses of Japan, and the stone hovels and filthy streets of China, and +suddenly found ourselves in a city of substantial brick and stone, wide +paved streets, electric lights and telegraph wires, and railway trains +snorting and puffing down to the very wharves. We could almost imagine +that either Tacoma or Seattle had bodily taken passage across the +Pacific and had planted itself on the eastern shore of Asia instead of +the western shore of America. Only the droskies and tarantasses flying +through the streets, with one horse under the huge Russian collar while +another ran free to keep up with his trotting-mate, recalled us to the +fact that we were about to step ashore in monarchical Russia instead of +republican America. + +A score of sampans, each manned by a long-cued Chinaman, were clamoring +to take us ashore, and we were scarcely less anxious to accept their +invitation, that we might plant our feet on _terra firma_, and realize +that our long ocean voyage was over and our longer land journey over an +unbeaten track was about to begin. + +[Illustration: GROUP OF KOREAN WORKMEN, VLADIVOSTOCK] + + + + +II + +THE METROPOLIS OF THE NORTHEAST + + +Vladivostock, on nearer approach, unlike many towns, carries out its +more distant promise. It is not a trim and finished town, but it is +one of strong outlines, and evidently built for a great future. Its +chief buildings are substantial. The town looks as though it had come +to stay. To be sure, the new outlet which Russia has obtained through +eastern China to the sea at Port Arthur will rob Vladivostock of its +unique importance as Russia’s only open door on the Pacific, but her +glory as the great natural port of Siberia, with a limitless country +of vast resources behind her, can never be taken away. The huge +ice-breaker which crunches up the harbor ice in winter with its sharp +iron beak is a complete success, and it is no longer an ice-bound port +for even three months of the year. The winter, though long, is not +unusually severe, and the mercury, I am told, seldom or never sinks so +low as it does in Boston or New York. + +No sooner had we stepped on shore than we were treated to our first +disillusionment concerning Russia and the Russians. We had heard much +about the terrors of the Russian custom-house. We expected to have our +baggage overhauled from turret to foundation-stone, and the feminine +member of our party had pictured to herself a swarthy Cossack with +sword and cutlass making hay of her feminine belongings, while he +searched for dutiable goods. But our Chinese sampan-man landed us at +the pier, and no customs officer appeared upon the scene. We waited, +but he did not come. We inquired in two or three different languages +for the custom-house, but no one knew what we meant. We wandered +up and down the pier looking for some building that resembled the +familiar office where duties are collected, but could find none. At +length, having fully satisfied our consciences, we boldly loaded our +_impedimenta_ into a drosky, and told the driver to take it to the +Hôtel du Pacifique. This he successfully accomplished, and no officer +of the law appeared to disturb our peace of mind, or to look into the +innocent recesses of our trunks. + +So far as I know we were subjected to no surveillance of any sort. We +came and went as we pleased. We minded our own business, and every one +else minded his. There seemed to be no such inspection of newly arrived +strangers as one is often conscious of in Germany. And yet, here we +were in autocratic Russia, and, more than that, in Siberia, the land of +the exile and the prisoner--the land around whose name has clustered +every synonym for oppression and cruelty. + +I am inclined to think that what I have been told by an acute +observer is very true, and that Russia is much more autocratic and +inquisitorial on paper than in reality. Her laws are severe and may +be enforced if needs must, but their iron hand is seldom felt by +the well-disposed. There is much theoretical restriction, and much +practical liberty. + +The hotels of Vladivostock are not to be indiscriminately commended. +When Baedeker writes his inevitable guide-book about Siberia he will +not mark them with his familiar *, unless they greatly improve upon +their present condition. It should be said, however, that the best one +was recently destroyed by fire, and the chief one that still remains is +probably suffering from lack of competition. The table was very good, +and the chief fault was that the rooms and halls were dark and dirty, +and clean linen was a scarce and precious article. One sheet for each +bed seemed to be the full allowance, and one small towel for three +people was apparently thought to be an ample supply. When one of our +party righteously complained that her towel had evidently done duty +before, the Japanese chambermaid, who did the English for the hotel, +replied that it was _impossible_ to get another; it was not to be had. +There was not a clean towel in the hotel. After much importunity, +however, she was induced to loan a long, clean scarf from her own +bureau to serve as a towel. + +However, this was a minor matter. We reminded ourselves that we were +in Siberia, and on the eastern edge of Siberia at that. Who could +expect all the amenities of civilization? We were no sooner established +in our hotel for the day than I sallied out to seek the governor of +Vladivostock and of this whole eastern province, to whom I fortunately +had a letter from the Russian minister of Japan. + +Well was it that I found the governor armed with these credentials, as +the sequel will show in another chapter. Governor Tchitchagoff received +me with the utmost courtesy. The letter from the minister to Japan +acted like an open sesame to his kindly attentions, and he at once +despatched a secretary to secure berths on the train which left the +next day for Khabaroffsk, and sent another to telegraph to Khabaroffsk +to hold a state-room on the Amour River steamer for Blagovestchensk, as +he knew the berths were in great demand. At the same time he gave me +a letter to the chief of police in Khabaroffsk. While waiting for the +preparation of this letter by his secretary he showed me a map of the +vast province of Primorskaia, of which he is governor, a province which +extends for two thousand miles up the shores of the Pacific, clear away +to the North Pole, embracing Kamchatka and the famous Saghalien Island +north of Japan, to which are banished the worst of Russian convicts. + +[Illustration: GENERAL TCHITCHAGOFF + +Governor of Vladivostock and Primorskaia] + +Governor Tchitchagoff is a man of commanding presence, but most +urbane and gentlemanly, a trait which he shares with most Russians +of the better class, so far as my observation goes. There is a +certain courtly simplicity about them, free from all arrogance +and brusqueness, which is the very essence of high breeding. The +governor speaks fluently French and German, and English with a little +hesitation. This, again, is a type of the educated Russian of the +better class, who is usually a famous linguist. + +Moreover, the governor is a Cossack, a name which, in my ignorance, I +had hitherto associated largely with frontier troopers of the Buffalo +Bill order. I confess my stupid misconception with contrition of +spirit. Thus again came a happy disillusion concerning Russia and the +Russians. This interview with the governor set my mind at rest in +regard to any danger of losing the steamer on the first stage of our +long river journey, for I knew that the word of General Tchitchagoff +was as the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not. He is the +virtual czar of all this Eastern land. It was exceedingly necessary +that we should incur no long delays, as a most important engagement +awaited me in London within forty-four days. I had already cabled +“London screaming,” which meant, according to the cable code, that I +would be in London on the Fourth of July (a most appropriate cable word +for the date in question), and there were very few days to spare over +the shortest time on record. Mail steamers on the Amour River start on +their various stages only once in five days, and it would not do to +miss connections at the outset. + +But now, with easy minds, we set out to “do” the town. It does not +take long to exhaust its glories, for it is a new town, in the raw, +half-baked stage of its existence, with most of its glories in the +future. But these are evident enough to make up for any present +deficiencies. Vladivostock is credited, in the latest published +statistics, with about 29,000 inhabitants, but it is now said to have +40,000, chiefly Russians, Chinese, and Coreans, with a sprinkling +of Japanese, Germans, French, Italians, English, and a very few +Americans. It is a remarkably cosmopolitan little city to be found on +the banks of an almost arctic sea, and it exhibits all the life and +picturesqueness of a little cosmopolis. Russian droskies go flying +about the streets in every direction, as though their occupants were +pressed for the last second of time, and would be eternally too +late unless they arrived somewhere within less than five minutes. +Most harum-scarum, reckless drivers apparently are the drosky men. +Their horses are given a loose rein, and they go flying down-hill +at breakneck speed, over the rough roads, and galloping up the next +incline with never a check on their mad career. The appearance of +reckless haste is further increased by the fact that always one horse +and often two horses are hitched to the vehicle outside the shafts, by +loose ropes or leather thongs. These horses often pull away from the +wheel-horse within the shafts so far as the harness will let them, and +they dance and prance and gallop while he trots at full speed, and the +drosky goes rattlety-bang over the stones and into the holes and over +the “thank-ye-marms” in a way that the Russians seem to like, but which +tires the patience and, let us hope, improves the liver of the foreign +passengers. + +Besides the drosky, the streets are full of another peculiarly Russian +vehicle, the isvodschik, which resembles a small boat set on long +poles, somewhat after the fashion of the body of a buckboard. This is +used to carry luggage, and, in many parts of the country, passengers +as well, who pile into it until it looks like a peasant’s cart in +Naples or a Chinese wheelbarrow in Shanghai. The Chinese wheelbarrow +is not wanting in Vladivostock either, and its familiar squeak is +heard on every hand. Vladivostock, indeed, must be the paradise of the +Celestial, for here he gets a wage of a rouble and a half a day, which +is something like ten times the pay he would receive in his native +land. Moreover, there seems to be unlimited work for him in grading +and paving the streets, carrying brick and mortar, rowing the sampans, +building the railways, and doing the other drudgery of a new colony. +The Corean, in his dirty white garments and padded pillow-cushion +shoes, is not far behind him in numbers, and competes for the manual +work of this new country with his Chinese cousin on the same terms. + +[Illustration: GENERAL VIEW OF VLADIVOSTOCK] + +Vladivostock consists of one chief street, running up-hill and +down-dale, with various branches climbing the hills on every side. +The chief sights are easily done, as I have said, for they consist +of a few fine stores and public buildings, a beautiful Greek church +with its graceful domes, and a triumphal arch in honor of the visit of +the czarewitch, a few years ago, when the first spadeful of earth, in +breaking the eastern end of the new Siberian railway, was turned by the +royal visitor. + +But Vladivostock’s chief glories do not lie in her public or private +buildings, or in the great fortresses which command the city and +harbor, but in the magnificent scenery that greets the eye on every +hand. Few cities in all the world are more beautiful for situation. The +Amour Bay, on one side, and the Bay of Ussuri, on the other, clasp the +city in their kind embrace, and constantly lave its feet with gentle +ripples. Noble hills stretch off landwards, and from the main hill-tops +within the city limits one gets glimpses of sea and shore and mountain +and valley of surpassing loveliness. In view of the long journey to +which we were looking forward, the railway station, prosaic as it is, +was the most interesting building in all Vladivostock. Over its doorway +is printed, in old Russian characters, a legend which may well stir the +blood as we think of all that it means. It reads as follows: + + VLADIVOSTOCK TO PETERSBURG + 9877 VERSTS. + +We were to begin to measure off these versts on the morrow. + + + + +III + +RIDING ON THE RAIL IN SIBERIA + + +Our first introduction to a Siberian railway train was made under +unusually pleasant circumstances. Hurrying to the station in ample +season to secure what accommodations we could, and expecting to have a +severe struggle with our tickets and our baggage in a strange language +of which we knew scarcely a single word, what was our surprise to have +a decorated official, in a handsome white uniform bound with gold +lace, accost us by name and assure us that, at the governor’s orders, +a first-class compartment had been reserved for us, and all we had to +do was to buy our tickets and take our seats. As the train was very +much crowded, and our lack of knowledge of the language made us almost +as helpless as infants in looking out for our comfort and advantage, +this was a favor which we most thoroughly appreciated. Before the train +started we were favored with a call in our little state-room from the +enterprising and energetic United States Consul, Richard T. Greener, +and also from Mrs. Frederick Pray, a little American lady, who, a few +years ago, transferred her home half around the world, from Berwick, +Maine, to Vladivostock, Russia. Her husband is connected with a large +American firm doing business in Vladivostock, that is introducing many +products of American soil and a thousand Yankee conveniences to the +Siberian public. Mrs. Pray had kindly prepared for us a list of common +Russian phrases, with the English pronunciation, which proved to be +exceedingly useful in calling for tea and bread-and-butter, and a +carriage, and a room at a hotel, or any one of the necessities of life +to the wanderer in Siberia, where French is scarce, and German scarcer, +and English almost nil. + +[Illustration: STATION OF KORFOVSKIA, EASTERN SIBERIA, SHOWING AMERICAN +LOCOMOTIVE] + +The Russian language is formidable enough even when one has time and +opportunity to make a study of it; to the passing traveller it is +absolutely appalling. It has thirty-six letters instead of twenty-six, +and several of them seem absolutely superfluous, for they cannot be and +never are pronounced. The Greek scholar at first hails the alphabet +with delight, and tackles it with enthusiasm, for he recognizes several +old friends. There is delta and lambda and phi and chi and theta and +several other letters that he struggled with in his school-days. But, +alas! his enthusiasm is soon quenched, for he finds that there are so +many other letters that are neither Greek nor Roman that he is more +confused than helped by the presence of his old friends in such strange +company. + +Moreover, several of the letters are exactly like Roman characters, but +have a very different sound, which is very confusing. For instance, +B is not B at all, but is V, as in vein, while the Russian B is an +entirely different character. H is not our familiar aspirate, which +Cockneys so sorely abuse, but is our N. P is equivalent to double +R in hu_rr_y, while the Russian P is made like the Greek pi. C is +always S, and there is no hard C in Russian. Y looks very familiar, +certainly, but is really oo, as in m_oo_n, and a letter that looks like +R wrong side before, Я, is the vowel ya, as in _ya_rd. Then there are +certain italicized letters which still further bewilder the puzzled +student, for u = i and n = p and m = t when written in italics, but not +otherwise. Thus it will be seen that Russian, “as she is spoke” or as +she is wrote, is not by any means a holiday affair, and the usefulness +of Mrs. Pray’s extemporized phrase-book can be fully appreciated. + +But the time has come for the start, of which we have been made fully +aware by numerous bells and gongs and whistles. There is no excuse for +any one to get left at a Siberian railway station. Five minutes before +the train starts a large station bell is rung. Four minutes more the +passengers stroll up and down the platform or visit the buffet. Then +the bell is rung once more, the conductor blows his whistle, the engine +shrieks a warning blast, and at last we are off, with St. Petersburg +9877 versts (more than 6250 miles) away. + +The scenery for a few miles out of Vladivostock is superb. The railway +skirts one of the great bays between which the city lies, high up +above the water, while off in the distance, beyond the blue ripples, +lie the blue mountains, only partially obscured by the morning haze. +Chinese junks, loaded with firewood for the locomotives, are dancing +on the waves, or unloading their cargo by throwing the pieces into the +sea for the waves to wash ashore, since the shallow water prevents the +junks from coming close to the bank. Occasionally the railway diverges +from the shore and runs through a copse of birch or beech, fresh and +bright in their new spring livery, and then returns once more to give +us a glimpse of the bright blue sea. The day was charming. Our most +delicious spring weather in America is no more delightful than this +first day of June in frozen Siberia. Had James Russell Lowell lived in +Siberia, he would have written with equal rapture his oft-quoted lines: + + “What is so rare as a day in June? + Then, if ever, come perfect days.” + +On one of these “perfect days” it was our good fortune to journey from +Vladivostock. The spring seemed just about as far advanced as it would +be in northern New England on the same date. The meadows were lush and +rank in their growth, and the cattle waded knee-deep in their delicious +fodder, and were, of course, as sleek and fat as cattle could be. The +trees were nearly in full leaf, though some of the later varieties had +not as yet donned their full suit of green. Great dandelions, almost as +large as peonies, starred the fields with yellow, and bluebells and +tiger-lilies made the roadway gay. + +[Illustration: “WHO’LL BUY MY FLOWERS?” + +Lilies-of-the-valley at the railway station] + +At the stations little girls with bare feet offered great bunches of +lilies of the valley for sale, and I noticed that they were not unlike +the rest of the world in taking advantage of the unsophisticated +traveller, for, while I paid fifteen kopeks for a bunch, a Russian by +my side, who knew how to dicker and bargain in the vernacular, paid but +three kopeks for his lilies. But every traveller in a strange land must +pay dear for his experience as well as for his lilies. Let me say, once +for all, that one hundred kopeks make a rouble, and that a rouble, at +the present rate of exchange, is worth a little more than fifty cents. +Russian money is on the gold basis, and is in gold, silver, paper, and +copper. National bills up to the value of five hundred roubles are good +in any part of the empire, and are in denominations of three, five, +ten, twenty-five, fifty, one hundred, and five hundred roubles. Gold is +in common use in pieces of five, seven and one-half, ten, and fifteen +roubles, and silver in roubles, half-roubles, and twenty-five, twenty, +fifteen, ten, and five kopek pieces, while copper coins are of one, +two, three, and five kopeks in value. In my opinion, there are too many +coins of different values, and one and five kopek pieces in copper, and +ten, twenty-five, and fifty kopek pieces in silver, and five and ten +rouble pieces in gold would answer quite as well the purposes of trade +as the larger variety now in use. As it is, the fifteen, twenty, and +twenty-five kopeks are so nearly of the same size as to be confusing, +especially as different issues of the same value are not always of +exactly the same size. The older silver coins seem to be of debased +metal, with a large admixture of copper, but the newer coins that bear +the image and superscription of the present czar are of much better +metal. + +[Illustration: VILLAGE OF VIAZEMSKOI, EASTERN SIBERIA] + +After the edge of the novelty of our first ride on a Siberian railway +wore off we had time to examine the railway equipment and the +carriages in which we were riding. The train was drawn by a sturdy +Baldwin locomotive, fitted with a big bulbous smoke-stack for burning +wood, and consisted of about a dozen cars of the first, second, and +third classes, in which the third-class largely predominated. The +third-class were painted green, the second-class yellow, and the +first-class a dark shade of blue. Sometimes a single car was divided +into two classes, first and second, one-half being painted blue and +the other yellow, with very little difference between the two classes +except the color of the paint and the price of the tickets. The +second-class cars were, perhaps, upholstered a shade less luxuriously +than the first, and were somewhat more crowded, though there was little +to choose in this respect. The first-class fare was seventeen roubles +(about eight dollars and a half), and the second-class about one-half +that sum. We were told in advance that the trains were built on the +“American plan,” but it is really a combination of the American and +English, somewhat in vogue on the continent of Europe. All the first +and second class cars are divided into compartments, but down their +side runs a narrow corridor wide enough for only one person to squeeze +through at a time. The compartments open on this corridor, and through +it the conductor passes to collect his fares; passengers walk back +and forth, babies escaped from their nurses toddle down, and it is +the general thoroughfare for a heavy-laden train. Being exceedingly +narrow, it is always “congested,” and a fat man finds it his “misery,” +indeed. In order to get through at all he must turn sideways and go +crab fashion. There seems to be a great social democracy in this +aristocratic country, and passengers from the different classes visit +back and forth with the utmost freedom, and occupy compartments of a +higher class than their own for half a day at a time. + +[Illustration: THROUGH THE FOREST IN EASTERN SIBERIA] + +As a rule, the Russians are exceedingly polite and considerate of +other people, and, for the most part, the rude and selfish people +whom we have met on this journey have belonged to other nationalities. +The third-class cars frequently have an aisle down the middle, with +seats on either side. As all the coaches are meant for night travel, +all provide what is called “lying-down room”--_i.e._, room is provided +for each passenger to stretch out at full length either in the upper +or lower berth. The first and second class cars are luxuriously +upholstered, and, by a curious contrivance, the upper bed turns over +and becomes, not “a chest of drawers,” but the back of the seat by +day. The only real lack of a Siberian railway is suitable lavatory +accommodations. The little toilet-room is often a wretched, filthy +closet, with a single wash-basin and a very limited supply of water, +and it answers for all, men and women alike. This fault is shared by +all Siberian hotels and steamboats that I have seen. The one cramped +and dirty spot is the wash-room (for many hotels have a common +lavatory, and no water is brought to the rooms), and the one scarce +article is fresh, cold water. Beer, wine, vodka, tea, especially tea, +flows freely, but to order a glass of water to drink, or a basin of +water, much more a tub of water for a bath, creates a commotion, and +the water desired is often unattainable, except after strenuous effort. +A Siberian writer remarks, naïvely, that “Englishmen have the bad +habit of washing themselves all over every day. _As a consequence of +this habit_, their bodies emit an unpleasant odor.” It must be said +in all fairness, however, that hotels, cars, and steamers in Siberia +are, outside of the wash-rooms, clean and wholesome for the most part. +To one who has just come from China or Corea, and who has tasted the +rare discomforts of travel in those countries, they seem to be beyond +criticism. + +Besides the cars already mentioned, a baggage-car and a dining-car +completed our train equipment. The latter, at least three times a day, +is a place of much interest, and deserves a few words of description. + +Pullman would scarcely own the diner as an offspring of his invention. +A long table down the middle, at which perhaps twenty people can sit at +one time, and a bar at the end, at which all kinds of light and strong +drinks are served, and toothsome delicacies dear to the Russian heart, +like caviare, sardines, and other little fishes “biled in ile,” are +eaten. At the long table _table d’hôte_ meals are served, consisting +of three or four courses, and one can also order what he chooses, +at a fixed price. The meals are usually one rouble each, and though +not luxurious, from the American dining-car point of view, they are +quite sufficient for the average traveller, and worth the price asked +for them. To be sure, one must get used to the greasy Siberian soup +and to the chunks of tough stewed meat, which may be beef, mutton, +or pork, one is never certain which. But travellers who choose to go +across Siberia should not be squeamish, and to think of eating in +a dining-car, however primitive, while whirling across the plains a +little south of Kamchatka, is enough to kill the spirit of criticism in +the most confirmed growler who ever went around the world. + +It only remains to be said that the road-bed of the Eastern Siberian +railway is well made, but seems to lack permanent stone ballast, the +bridges are substantial iron structures, the piers and culverts are +thoroughly built of cut stone, the embankments are smooth and well +sodded, but the rails are light, and, it would seem, must be replaced +by heavier ones before any high rate of speed can be attained. + +[Illustration: CITY OF KHABAROFFSK, ON THE AMOUR RIVER] + + + + +IV + +FROM VLADIVOSTOCK TO KHABAROFFSK + + +The distance from Vladivostock to Khabaroffsk is a little less than +five hundred miles, and it requires fully twenty-nine hours to cover +it, so it will be seen that the trains are not run on the “Empire +express” plan. However, before we had been many days in Siberia such +a rate of progress had come to seem speed itself. The stations on the +eastern end of the Siberian railway are not many, for the villages are +few and far between, but we make up for the fewness of the stops by +spending a long time at each station. Still we can occupy the waiting +time very pleasantly by getting many, though fleeting, glimpses of +Siberian life. The stations themselves are usually wooden buildings, +neat and attractive and prettily painted. A picturesque water-tower +is always a feature of the grounds, and usually an underground +store-house, sodded over, that looks like an Oklahoma cyclone cellar. +In this, doubtless, provisions are kept from freezing during the long +Siberian winter. All the principal stations have buffets, where thirsty +Russians refresh themselves with vodka, kvass, and other national +drinks. + +The villages usually consist of a few log-houses, with an occasional +more pretentious frame house, but they are neat and attractive, and +compare very favorably with the villages on our own Western frontier. +The most interesting object at all these stations was the line of +country men, women, and children who had brought the products of +their farms to sell to the hungry travellers. Every station had its +hucksters, not noisy or obtrusive, but waiting patiently in an orderly +line for customers. Bottles of milk for ten kopeks, hard-boiled eggs +for ten kopeks a dozen, huge loaves of black, sour bread in which the +Siberian rejoices, chunks of fried meat and fried fish, huge pickled +cucumbers, bottles of home-brewed kvass, a kind of innocent pop beer, +were among the comestibles offered for sale. The hucksters were all +hearty, healthy specimens of humanity, not refined or elegant in +feature or dress--this could scarcely be expected in this new land--but +wholesome, honest-faced settlers, capable, evidently, of laying deep +and strong the foundations of an empire. I am told that many of them +are dissenters from the Greek Church, and that they live godly and +simple lives, and are much respected by their neighbors, and in this +part of the country at least are unmolested by the government, unless +they try to proselyte among adherents of the national faith. Most +of them, too, are vegetarians. Every village has its church, often +embowered in a little park of green, and the towers of blue and green, +colors which the Siberians greatly affect for their churches, and +bright copper domes, shining in the brilliant sun, always gave a touch +of pleasing color to the scene, and showed that the people were not +wholly given to buying and selling and getting gain in these little raw +railway settlements. + +The costumes of the people who flocked to the railway stations were +most picturesque and interesting. Red was decidedly the favorite color +with the women, and red of every shade and hue. Dull red and bright +red, Turkey red and blood red, crimson, magenta, scarlet, and crushed +strawberry. Often several, if not all, of these colors were combined in +the same costume in a way which, I suppose, would have set the teeth of +our fashion-plate ladies on edge, but which, after all, was undeniably +picturesque. + +[Illustration: FATHER ALEXANDER AND STATION-MASTER AT NIKOLSKOIE] + +The men were usually clad in a loose blouse, belted around the waist, +and loose trousers tucked invariably into huge top-boots that reached +nearly to the knee. Many times these boots looked to be by far the +most expensive feature of the costume. As a Mexican peasant will often +wear a sombrero, it is said, worth as much as his coat and trousers +and boots, mule and saddle--in fact, the whole outfit combined--so the +Siberian peasant clothes the other end of his anatomy with equal care, +and even if he must go in rags, will bankrupt himself on his boots. + +At all these stations the military were strongly in evidence, as is +not unnatural, since this is a military road and the large places are +all military headquarters. Everywhere, in the cars and out, officers +and soldiers were to be seen. At least every other man you met seemed +to be in uniform. But they, too, were invariably polite and showed +nothing of the haughty arrogance and devil-may-care air often exhibited +by the soldiery of Germany and other army-ridden countries. In fact, +I was struck on this railway ride, and on all my other journeys in +Siberia, by a certain quiet, dignified, self-contained air that the +people displayed. The hucksters are not insistent on your buying +their wares. The cabmen are not vociferous. The few beggars are not +obtrusive. It is as though the vast, lonely stretches of their homeland +had somehow impressed themselves upon the character of the people. The +broad reach of upland and prairie, the noble hills, the wide stretch +of blue heavens above them, the long, serious winter, the strenuous +conditions of their life in this virgin land, have developed a national +character, which seems never to have acquired the noise and bustle and +artificial “hustle” of city-dwellers. On the whole, it is a pleasing, +restful, and, I should think, likable type of character to which these +surface indications point. I felt that I was back in the early days of +New England, among the Pilgrim fathers and mothers of a new empire, as +I looked into these earnest, frank, and serious faces, and as I looked +I had large hope for the empire they are founding. + +The parish priest is also a picturesque and interesting factor of +village life. He often came to the station to take part in the one +excitement of the day, the arrival of the daily passenger train. He was +usually clad in flowing robes of black, with a close-fitting purple +cap, while a huge gold or silver crucifix dangled from his neck. His +hair is always long and curly. Whether the Greek priests were chosen +for their curly hair or indulged in the use of curling-irons when +preparing their morning toilet was a question which interested the +ladies in our party. They seemed to mingle with their people on terms +of benevolent equality, and their kindly and gracious presence shed a +benediction even upon the railway platform. They were not averse to +having their pictures taken, and the camera enthusiasts “snapped” the +holy fathers with the greatest freedom. + +The kodak is not unknown in Siberia, but it is evidently much more of a +novelty than in the west, and always attracted crowds of staid peasants +who wanted to look into the “finder” and see the resultant picture. +Some were quite disappointed that the completed picture could not +immediately be taken out of the camera and shown to them. One gorgeous +railway official, much be-braided and be-spangled with gilt, insisted +on having his black-bearded face transferred to the sensitive film. +He posed with his most radiant expression, without any exhortation to +“look pleasant.” He followed our party about, and apparently expressed +every good wish for our successful journey, though our knowledge of +Russian was not equal to his voluble good wishes, and, finally, just +as the train pulled out of his station, he handed us a paper on which +he had written a request that we telegraph him of our safe arrival at +Blagavestchensk, a city on the Amour River, a thousand miles further +west. A kindly fellow-feeling that, to be provoked while the train +stopped “ten minutes for refreshments.” + +[Illustration: A PATHETIC SIBERIAN VILLAGE GRAVEYARD] + +Fifty miles after leaving Vladivostock the railway climbs to a +considerable plateau, and the trees disappear, while open prairie +land takes the place of the forests that crown and gird the hill-sides. +For a couple of hundred miles, at a rough guess, the open prairie land +continues. The soil mostly seemed to be a rich black loam, and one +would think it was capable of supporting millions of people where it +now supports hundreds. + +On the second morning of our journey, twenty hours after leaving +Vladivostock, we woke up in a heavily wooded, hilly region, and I had +to rub my eyes to make sure that I was not dreaming and had really +awaked in Siberia and not in northern Maine. Here was the Moosehead +Lake region duplicated, apparently, in every stump and white birch-tree +and corduroy road. Here were the same tree-clad hills and rocky +ravines, with glimpses of other and higher hills peering above the +tree-tops. Here were the same clear running brooks, babbling over their +rocky beds, the same patches of charred timber burned to clear the +land, the same flora down to the dandelions, blue-bells, butter-cups, +and cowslips. To be sure, there was not such a predominance of +spruce-trees as in northern Maine, but their places were taken by the +larch and cedar and other evergreens, and white and yellow birch, +beech, and poplar, which predominated, made me feel very much at home. + +For hours these familiar forests lined the railway, and then the +train emerged into the fertile plains that border the Amour. Here the +snow fences, piled up in their summer quarters, reminded one of the +prairies of our own Northwest, and showed that in the Siberian winter +the railway has the same great enemy to fight. The telegraph poles, +often braced by two supports until they look like so many tripods, also +testify to the strength of Siberian winds. At length, at noon of the +second day, twenty-nine hours after leaving Vladivostock, the spires +and chimneys of Khabaroffsk appear across the prairie, and we realize +that the first stage, and a very pleasant one, of our trans-Siberian +journey was nearly finished. + +[Illustration: THE OLD WAY BY THE “SHIP OF THE DESERT”] + +Scarcely had the train pulled into the station of Khabaroffsk, and +before I could get to the door of the car, when a police official in +gorgeous raiment crowded in and inquired anxiously for “Pastor Clark +from America.” When I confessed to being, in all probability, the +individual that he sought, the official seemed much relieved, and at +once took charge of me and mine, bag and baggage, and summoned a small +squad of soldiers, or sub-police, to assist him. Evidently the kindly +telegram of Governor Tchitchagoff was doing its beneficent work, and, +like expectant American politicians, we were “in the hands of our +friends.” + + + + +V + +THE _BARON KORFF_ + + +Our friend in need proved a friend indeed, for it would have been no +easy thing, knowing scarcely a word of the language, to disentangle our +baggage, secure a cart to carry it, and droskies to carry ourselves, +and make our way through the city of Khabaroffsk to the steamboat +landing two miles away in season to catch the mail steamer, which, +with steam up and whistle shrieking, was waiting to start on her long +journey up the mighty Amour. But our official accomplished it all for +us with celerity and despatch. He picked out our baggage, hired our +droskies, took another himself, and drove to the steamer, saw our +baggage safely bestowed in a state-room which had been secured for us +at the governor’s orders, and did not leave us until we were fairly +established in our comfortable and commodious quarters on the _Baron +Korff_. We appreciated this courtesy the more fully when we learned +that the steamer was exceedingly crowded, that it went only once in +five days, and that some people had already been waiting fifteen days +for the coveted passage. Our rapid flight through Khabaroffsk was made +in a cloud of dust which would have done honor to Peking itself, the +dustiest city in the world. Through the dust, however, we were able +to catch glimpses of a frontier American-like town, with some good +business blocks of brick and a fine cathedral church. We afterwards +learned that Khabaroffsk contains about fifteen thousand inhabitants, +and its importance is derived from the fact that it is the highest seat +of government for all this vast section of the Amour River. Sitting +on a high bluff at the juncture of the Amour and the Ussuri, a great +stream which here joins its forces with its greater rival, the town +occupies a commanding position and is regally situated to dominate the +traffic of both rivers. In any other land the Ussuri itself would be a +notable river, but in this country of great rivers, though it is nearly +a mile wide at its juncture with the Amour, it is only a branch of +eastern Siberia’s greater waterway. + +[Illustration: THE _BARON KORFF_] + +Since the _Baron Korff_ was to be our home for the next week, and, in +a literal as well as figurative sense, we were to be “all in the same +boat” with the rest of her passengers, we were naturally anxious to +know something of them and of her, if it is proper to speak of a baron +as belonging to the feminine sex. A hasty inspection showed us that the +_Baron Korff_ was a stately side-wheeler, such as might have done duty +on the Mississippi before the railroads robbed her of her commercial +glory. The first-class accommodations were well forward, and consisted +of roomy and comfortably furnished staterooms for about twenty people +on the upper deck, each room having berths for two people, a long +dining-saloon, into which the state-rooms opened, and a pleasant +saloon in front, handsomely furnished and provided with a good German +piano. This saloon made a delightful sitting-room for the passengers, +for its abundant glass furnished a splendid view of the river and the +banks on either side, between which the _Baron_ made her devious way. +Behind the first-class cabins was a large open space, sheltered from +the wind, and suitable for a promenade. Here was a restaurant and bar, +frequently patronized by some of our thirsty fellow-passengers, while +behind it were the second-class cabins, which looked to me nearly as +comfortable as those at the other end of the ship. Down below were +huddled together a miscellaneous crowd of peasants--men, women, and +children--with their scant piles of bedding and all their worldly +possessions; sturdy men in top-boots and figured gowns belted at the +waist, often with a sleeveless vest worn outside; women in gay calicoes +and hobnailed shoes; children clad in little more than nature’s +original raiment--all were here. On the hard iron floor they spread out +their quilts, piled their household goods about them, and prepared to +make the best of their six days in the bowels of the _Baron Korff_. + +Their accommodations were not luxurious, certainly, but when we +remember that they paid but three roubles and six kopeks for the entire +918 versts, more than six hundred miles, to Blagavestchensk, or only +about one dollar and a half, we cannot think that the accommodations +were disproportionate to the price. + +The chief rival of our friends in the steerage was the great pile of +wood, for which the _Baron Korff_ had an insatiate maw, and which, when +first put on board, occupied fully one-half the space of the steerage, +but which, every hour, sensibly diminished until we came to a station, +where a new supply was taken on board. + +[Illustration: EMBARKING ON AN AMOUR RIVER STEAMER] + +The second-class fare was four times the third-class, or thirteen +roubles and ninety-seven kopeks, and the first-class more than seven +times the third, or twenty-two roubles and ninety-six kopeks. I am +constrained to admit, however, that the first-class accommodations are +fully seven times as good as the third, though I do not think they are +twice as good as the second. + +For the meals on the Amour steamers one pays separately, at the rate of +two roubles a day, not an extravagant sum, indeed; but they were not +extravagant meals, and they cost all they were worth. + +In the morning, about eight, tea was served, with the inevitable +samovar occupying the place of honor in the centre. Slices of lemon and +sugar were provided, according to the Russian style, but no milk. Soft +bread and zweiback, without butter, completed the first meal of the day. + +The second, and principal, meal was served promptly at noon, and +consisted of a thick, greasy soup, a course of meat with no potatoes, +and very scanty vegetables of any kind, and a pudding. On rare +occasions ice-cream took the place of the pudding. Tea was served +again at four o’clock, and supper, which consisted of one meat course +without vegetables, and more tea, completed the menus for the day. If +one wished to supplement these meals with orders from the restaurant of +caviare or smoked fish or boiled eggs, of course he was at liberty to +do so. + +The first meal served on the _Baron Korff_ on our voyage was supper. +Fifteen foreigners and five Russians sat down to the table together. +None of the foreigners, at least, knew what to expect from the culinary +department. The meat was served, and was sparingly partaken of, on +the supposition that, after the fashion of other steamers, four or +five other courses would follow. Then came a long wait. The plates +were removed, and still we waited. The minutes lengthened into a full +quarter of an hour, and at length the one overworked waiter appeared, +bearing, not the expected fish or vegetables or salad or dessert, but +_the brass samovar_, and we knew a tumbler of tea was all that was to +be expected. The craning of necks as the long-delayed waiter entered +the room, and the expressions of disappointment when his sole burden +was discovered, were amusing. But though some went hungry to bed the +first night, Experience, the mother of wisdom, taught a needed lesson +for all travellers on the Amour River--to lay in a sufficient store +from the first platter, and not trust to the “hereafter.” After that no +one omitted the first course. + +I dwell somewhat at length on these details, because, so far as my +experience of Siberian river-steamers goes--and this experience became +somewhat large and varied before we reached Stretinsk, twenty days +later--they are characteristic of all river travel in Siberia. + +The steward, to whom I have already alluded, was a sadly overworked +individual. He was waiter, cook, bell-boy, chambermaid, boots, and +man-of-all-work for all the twenty first-class passengers, and, as can +be imagined, no grass was allowed to grow under his feet. To be sure, +his duties as chambermaid were merely nominal, for every one took care +of his own room, furnished his own bedding, and made his own bed, and +all had to wash in a common lavatory and furnish their own towel, soap, +and, of course, all toilet articles. This common washroom arrangement +was the most unpleasant feature of the _Baron Korff_, and we had +occasionally to remind ourselves that we were in the extreme boundaries +of Siberia. Who, then, had a right to look for all the luxuries of the +latest civilization? + +[Illustration: ON THE SHORE OF THE AMOUR] + +At length we were embarked on the long river journey to which we had so +long been looking forward, and about which we had heard such various +and contradictory reports. For months we had made it a point to inquire +of every one likely to know concerning the trans-Siberian route. No +two people agreed concerning it, or came within sight of agreement. +“It can’t be done,” “You can do it easily,” “It will take two months,” +“You can go through in twenty-two days,” “You will get stuck on the +sand-bars for weeks,” “You will have no difficulty whatsoever,” “The +steamers run only occasionally, and do not begin until the 11th of +June,” “They run every day, and the river is open early in May,” “You +will need heavy clothes, and all your winter furs,” “You will find +delightful summer weather,” “You will have to ride in cattle-cars when +you get to the end of your boat journey,” “You will have the most +luxurious railway accommodations in the world.” + +Such were the varied and miscellaneous bits of misinformation which +we had been able to pick up in America, Japan, China, and even in +Vladivostock itself. But now the journey on the great waterway of +Siberia had begun. The paddle-wheels of the _Baron Korff_ had begun +to revolve, we were to be among the first few score of people who +had crossed the Russias by steam, and we should soon know which of +these conflicting stories were correct, or whether they were all alike +untrustworthy. + + + + +VI + +THE LORDLY AMOUR + + +Fair as was the scene that first bright June day on the Amour, we could +not altogether forget that we were in Siberia, for, as the lines of the +_Baron Korff_ were cast off, another steamer of like pattern anchored +just beyond moved out of our way, and we saw that she was towing a +convict barge, and the faces of the poor fellows bound for dismal exile +could be seen, pressing close up to the bars of their floating cage. +These prisoners were bound for Saghalien Island, a thousand miles away, +at the mouth of the Amour. + +No sooner had the _Baron Korff_ gotten clear of the pier than we found +that she, too, towed a convict barge, and henceforth, for days and +days, for hundreds of miles, one of these grewsome ships followed +in our wake, tugged by the same steam-power that carried us along. +But what a difference! We were journeying in comparative luxury, with +pleasant company, and all the freedom that a roomy steamer can furnish, +to friends in Europe, and then to our home in the home land. + +They, shut up in a white, floating cage, in narrow quarters, were +facing exile and misery, and perhaps death, far from their homes and +kindred. Every revolution of the paddle-wheels was carrying us nearer +home, and them farther away. What a mockery the bright sunshine and +green, tree-clad banks, and boundless, free prairies, stretching +beyond, must have seemed to these cabined, cribbed, confined, hemmed-in +voyagers! + +[Illustration: A PRISON BARGE] + +It must be confessed that these particular convict barges from a +distance did not look either filthy or overcrowded, and closer +inspection afterwards convinced me that if prisoners must be exiled, +they could scarcely have expected more comfortable conveyance. Still +the thought of those fellow-travellers, so near and yet so far from +the view-point of freedom, hope, and good cheer, cast a shadow on the +journey whenever we looked at their white prison trailing on behind. + +The Amour at Khabaroffsk, though we were more than five hundred miles +from its mouth, was fully a mile and a half wide, and flowed in a +strong, full current, which fact we realized for many a day thereafter, +as we made our slow and toilsome way against it. The Amour is one +of the few greatest rivers of the world. In length it is equalled +by no river in Europe, and surpassed only by the Yang-tse-Kiang and +Yenisei, in Asia, by the Nile and Congo, in Africa, and by the Amazon +and Mackenzie, in America, though, if we reckon the Mississippi and +Missouri as one river, it is longer than any of them except the Nile. + +The basin drained by the Amour contains over 500,000 square miles. It +is a singular fact that so many of the great rivers of the world are +of nearly the same length. The Amour, Yenisei, Mekong, Obi, Hoangho, +and Lena, in Asia, are all within two or three hundred miles of the +same length, and all surpass 2500 miles. + +The Congo, according to the geographers, is only about a hundred miles +longer than the Amour, while the Niger is two hundred miles shorter. +The Amazon is three hundred miles longer than the Amour, the Mackenzie +a hundred miles longer, while the St. Lawrence falls short of it by six +hundred miles. + +But, in a general way, it may be said that a dozen of the great rivers +of the world are practically of the same length. Of them all, few are +more majestic and imperious in their flow, or drain a fairer country +than the Amour. + +Its water is somewhat muddy at Vladivostock, but nothing like the +consistency of the Mississippi at St. Louis. It cannot not be said to +be “both food and drink.” As we ascend its swift current it constantly +grows clearer, until, a thousand miles farther up, it is about the +color of white wine, and is sweet and wholesome to the taste. + +The Amour is unique in the fact that it flows through a fertile country +which is almost uninhabited, and yet is capable of supporting millions. +No great cities line its banks, and not many towns that rank larger +than hamlets. Even these are few and far between, and one journeys +for half a day at a time without seeing even one little hut among the +bushes. Its shores are still in their virgin greenery. For hundreds +of miles at a time one sees not a cultivated field, though doubtless +some such tilled land lies back from the river and out of sight. Great +wood-piles for the use of the frequent river-steamers are the most +common objects that show the hand of man, but even these are often in +desperately lonely spots, so that one can scarcely believe that they +were ever visited by human beings. And yet all this immense river basin +of half a million square miles is apparently fertile and habitable, +and, when we saw it, was glowing in rich and brilliant verdure. Surely +the world is not yet over-peopled while such a lordly domain is waiting +for the plough and the reaper. + +To be sure, we saw the Amour Valley in early June, when everything in +nature is at its freshest and best, and our judgment might have been +modified had we seen it in December. Still, every country, like every +man, should be judged at its best and not at its worst. + +Promptly at four o’clock the _Baron Korff_ started on her long journey, +and went zigzagging across the lordly river in order to stem the swift +current as best she might. On the left-hand side was Chinese Manchuria, +on the right Russian Siberia. But the Bear has her huge paw on all this +country, and only by sufferance has she for many years allowed the Sick +Man of Asia to nominally rule the left bank of the river. + +[Illustration: A SIBERIAN RIVER TOWN IN WINTER] + +It is a suggestive journey that we are taking on the broad ribbon of +water that divides two of the greatest nations of the world--the one +hoary and decrepit, with the weakness of her centuries heavy upon her, +the other lusty and stout in comparative youth, like a strong young man +lately come to the consciousness of virile powers. + +Two hundred years ago and more China and Russia tried conclusions on +these same plains of the Amour, and then China came off best. Russian +garrisons were captured and carried off to Peking, and a treaty was +concluded ceding all this land back to China. But during these two +centuries China has daily been growing weaker and more corrupt in her +senility. Russia has become mightier with each succeeding year. + +In 1868, by the treaty of Aigun, so called because of the Chinese town +on the banks of the Amour, where the treaty was signed, China ceded +all the country north of the river to the Great Bear, who afterwards +obtained concession after concession, until she was paramount in all +Asia north of and including Peking. Then came the last uprising of +China, which began the very month this journey was made, and which +again threatened Russia’s domination, at least for a time. Thus the +shuttlecock of dominion over northern Asia has been thrown back and +forth between the battledore of Russia and China, and the end is not +yet. + +It will be seen that if this country through which we are making our +zig-zag route is lonely, it is not devoid of historic interest. It has +been and is a battle-ground for armies and diplomats, and is likely to +play a still larger part on the world’s checker-board in the future. + +All through the first afternoon and through the long twilight which, +in these northern latitudes, leaves but a few hours to the night, the +_Baron Korff_ ploughed her way along the mighty river which seemed to +be vexed by no other paddles. But so great is its extent that, although +there are hundreds of steamboats on the river, to meet one is still an +event. + +During the first part of the voyage the Manchurian shore presents the +most striking scenery. Many bold and picturesque hills come down to the +water’s edge, clothed from top to toe in living green, the graceful +boles of the white birch, the most abundant tree, gleaming like pillars +of silver against the dark background. On the Siberian shore the banks +are less bold, but seem to present an endless stretch of rich bottom +lands, where the cattle of the world might graze. + +One important and interesting feature on all Amour River boats is the +constant heaving of the lead, to tell of the treacherous shoals which, +all up and down the length of the river, lie in wait for every passing +steamer. Constantly, day and night, week in and week out, stands a man +near the bow with a stick about ten feet long, loaded at the lower end. +To the upper end of this pole a cord is attached, which is tied to the +leadsman’s wrist, and this pole he constantly casts, once a minute on +the average, to ascertain the depth of the water. The pole is divided +into foot lengths, each painted a different color, so that he can tell +at a glance how much water there is when the leaded end strikes bottom. +When the water is deeper than his pole, he gives no warning cry, but +when it comes down to nine, eight, seven, six feet, he calls out the +depth with every cast, to the man at the wheel, and throughout half the +day and half the night we hear his monotonous sing-song: “shest” (six), +“shest polovina” (six and one-half), “pyat” (five), “pyat polovina” +(five and one-half). When the leadsman calls out “pyat,” O helmsman, +look out, for there is only five feet of water below your water-line, +and when he calls out “chiteery polovina,” ring “half-speed” down to +the engine-room, for there is only four feet and a half of water, and +the _Baron Korff_, flat bottomed as she is, draws four feet. + +[Illustration: A THUNDER-STORM BY NIGHT ON THE AMOUR] + +These frequent shoals add a spice of excitement to the voyage, for one +never knows when he may hear the bottom grating on the gravel, and find +the steamer laid up for an hour or a day or a week on a sand-bar. +The Amour River, like certain men, spreads itself out too thin, and +gains breadth at the expense of depth. + +The cry of the leadsman reminds one of Mark Twain’s days on the +Mississippi, only they “mark dva,” and “tree,” and “chiteery,” and +“pyat,” instead of “mark twain,” and “mark three,” and four, and five. +When will the genius of the Amour come to the front? And when he comes +will he call himself “Dva” or “Pyat”? + +The second and third days on the _Baron Korff_ were much like the +first--bright, beautiful, rare days in early June. The breath of +the flowers came sweet and fresh from either shore, as the steamer +swept from one side of the river to the other. No grand scenery +marked these early days of the voyage, but much that was exceedingly +beautiful, with a quiet loveliness all its own. The whole country has +a peculiarly finished and cultivated appearance for such a wild and +almost uninhabited land. Though there are few settlements and fewer +farms visible from the steamer, there is little of the tangled wildwood +of our American forests. Much of the country is open and treeless, and, +where trees abound, they grow in stately ranks, with little undergrowth +and no impenetrable thickets. + +At night the helmsman steers by lights set along the shore at +advantageous points and at a distance of a few hundred yards from +each other. These lights are like kerosene street lamps, set on posts +fifteen or twenty feet high. Some of the lamps are white and others +red, and, though their light is feeble, they afford points to steer by, +and boats are able to steam day and night, except when stuck upon a +sand-bar. + +A familiar sight towards evening is the lonely lamplighter in his +little Rob Roy canoe, the paddles flashing alternately on either side +in the evening sun. Often he is the only inhabitant along the shore for +miles and miles, and he must make his solitary rounds alone day after +day to fill and light his lamps, and is often obliged to scale almost +inaccessible precipices to get at them, for, wherever it is possible, +the lamps are placed upon a bluff or headland. + +The voyager on the Amour has reason, indeed, to bless the lonely +lamplighter, and to say to himself, as the steamer ploughs along +through the darkness, guided by the minute points of light in the +distance: “How far the little candle throws its beams!” + + + + +VII + +BETWEEN TWO GREAT NATIONS + + +For three days longer we continued to steam on the _Baron Korff_ +between China and Russia. On the third day out from Khabaroffsk the +scenery grows more charming with every mile. The Amour here passes +through a cleft in a spur of the Khingan Mountains, which close in on +her on both the Manchurian and Siberian sides. The hills here are not +very high, perhaps not more than five hundred feet, but their sides are +often precipitous and present a sheer wall of rock to the view, through +which it forces its way with many a swirl and eddy and with tremendous +force of current, against which our good ship could make but slow +headway. + +[Illustration: ON THE BANKS OF THE AMOUR] + +We here remarked again the peculiar open, park-like effect of the +forests, especially on the Manchurian side. I could scarcely believe +that these trees in these far Eastern wilds had not been planted +by man, and that they did not indicate some great baronial estate, +whose castle, to be sure, was hidden behind the hills. Some beautiful +hill slopes were covered with stately white birches, without a sign +of underbrush, but with green grass forming a soft carpet beneath. +In other places trees with black boles took the place of the white +birch, but they were at such a distance that I could not determine +the species, though they looked like oaks. For miles and miles these +natural parks continued, and even where the park-like effect was not +so pronounced and beautiful, the lovely open character of the forest +continued, for nearly the whole of our fifteen hundred miles on the +Amour. The cause of this beautiful effect I do not know. Perhaps in +the severe Siberian winters only the fittest survive. The small wood, +vines, and parasites of all kinds are killed off by the cold, and +only the hardier and stronger trees remain. Whatever the cause, the +resultant parks make the banks of the Amour singularly attractive +during the brief summer. + +The approach to a village was a matter of much interest, both to those +on ship and those on shore. When within a quarter of a mile the captain +would blow a tremendous blast on the whistle to summon every man, +woman, and child to the banks. They would all respond with promptness +and despatch, and come streaming down the bluff to the shore, each +woman hugging two or three bottles of milk or carrying a pail of butter +or a basket of eggs or a bowl of sour cream or a great loaf of black +bread, with a hole in the middle like a huge doughnut. Sometimes a +woman would appear holding a large goose in her arms as tenderly as +though it were a baby, the body of the goose being concealed in the +blouse that covered her ample bosom, while its long neck craned out, +exhibiting as much interest in the passing show as any one on the +shore. + +The passengers on the ship would all congregate on the upper deck, +many of them with empty bottles in their hands, to exchange, with ten +kopeks added, for the full bottles on the shore. There are, of course, +no docks or piers at these villages along the Amour, and to make fast +to the shore in this swift and shallow water is a work of time and +patience. First the anchor is thrown out about a hundred yards from +the shore, and cable enough is paid out to allow the boat to drift +within twenty feet of the bank. Then a bowline is carried ashore in the +ship’s boat and made fast to a tree or a post. A stern line is treated +in the same way, and by this time the steamer is near enough for the +long gangplanks to be pulled ashore. A wooden horse is put underneath +to steady them, and then the eager passengers stream ashore, and there +is, for a time, a lively barter in milk and eggs and curd cheese and +black bread, until the market is exhausted or the passengers’ wants +satisfied. + +The villages on the Amour all have a striking family resemblance, and +usually consist of one or two streets of log-houses, often chinked with +moss, one or two stores of general merchandise, and, if the village +is of any size, a handsome Greek church, and a triumphal arch to +indicate that the czarewitch, in his famous journey to the far East, +stopped there. Sometimes the arch is anything but majestic in its +proportions, a mere pitiful little affair of unpainted wood, ten feet +high, but it indicates the loyalty of the Siberians and their love for +their “Little Father” just as well as though it was a magnificent and +imposing work of art. The larger towns, like Vladivostock, Khabaroffsk, +and Blagavestchensk, all have lofty and imposing arches, blazing with +colors or shining with burnished copper, as becomes the larger and +wealthier municipalities. + +[Illustration: SOME OF OUR FELLOW-TRAVELLERS. SIBERIAN EMIGRANTS ON THE +AMOUR] + +Just at nightfall on the third day out we passed a Chinese village +on the Manchurian shore, called into being by some rich gold-mines in +the vicinity. It is only placer-mining that has yet been attempted, +and the quartz awaits the enterprise and the machinery of the Western +nations. + +On the fourth day we passed the Chinese town of Aigun, a city of forty +thousand inhabitants, and noted, as I have before said, as the place +where the treaty was signed in 1868 which gave all eastern Siberia to +Russia. + +These places, even from the steamer’s deck, mellowed and sweetened +as they were by distance, looked dirty and wretched and squalid, and +showed none of the thrift, neatness, and prosperity of the towns on the +Russian side. These were the only Chinese towns that border the Amour +for a thousand miles from Khabaroffsk. Besides them we scarcely saw +a hut or a wood-pile in Manchuria. Here are vast stretches of virgin +soil, rich and productive, millions of acres of noble forest, great +park-like estates, laid out by nature, without a single inhabitant. Yet +there are uncounted millions of Celestials huddled together in hundreds +of cities and thousands of reeking villages in China, who need this +sweet air and the wide freedom of these Manchurian fields, which for +centuries have belonged to the “Middle Kingdom.” That the Chinaman has +not occupied his own domain is the more remarkable, for he is in a way +an enterprising individual and often leaves home to seek “fresh fields +and pastures new.” He finds his home in America and Australia, in the +Sandwich Islands and Manila, in the Straits Settlement and Colombo, in +Japan and Corea--even across the Amour into Russian territory he has +wandered in large numbers, while much of his own country is still a +wilderness. I suppose the fact is that the Chinaman knows a good thing +in the way of a stable and just government when he sees it, as well +as the rest of mankind, and that he does not propose to develop a +country where he will be robbed and pillaged under the form of law, and +the fruits of his toil taken away from him as soon as they are ripe. + +[Illustration: SOME OTHER FELLOW-PASSENGERS. RUSSIAN OFFICERS AND THEIR +FAMILIES] + +Almost every day our steamer had to take on a fresh supply of wood, +for she had a vast appetite for birch and pine. Fortunately there was +enough to satisfy the most voracious of furnaces. When wooding-up time +came at night, it was a most picturesque sight. Two great flares would +be built of large logs on either side of the gangplank, a cord of the +best wood being piled on at one time to light up the scene. Then the +roustabouts from the steamer would tumble ashore, each with a long, +stout pole and a strap to go over his shoulders. Two roustabouts, +working in partnership, would then lay down their poles and pile the +heavy sticks upon them till they had as much as they could carry. +Then, hitching the straps over their shoulders, they would hoist their +load hip high and rush it on board. The banks down which they had to +carry the wood were often steep and slippery, and the gangplank was +long and unsteady, and there was many a slip and a spill between the +wood-pile and the steamer’s hold. But these minor accidents made the +scene all the more interesting from the passengers’ point of view. How +the roustabouts looked at the matter I cannot tell. At any rate, they +good-naturedly made the best of it, without any profanity that English +ears could understand, picked up themselves and their wood, and started +on again. + +The fourth and fifth days on the Amour were cold and rainy, but we +comforted ourselves for the discomfort of the weather by remembering +that the rain would raise the river, which was exceptionally low, and +perhaps enable the _Baron Korff_ to reach Blagavestchensk. + +[Illustration: A TRIUMPHAL ARCH IN HONOR OF THE CZAREWITCH’S JOURNEY +THROUGH SIBERIA] + +On the afternoon of the fourth day we reached a little village, which +consisted mostly of wood-pile, and here the wait continued hour after +hour. No one knew the cause of the delay, and the Russian of none +of the foreign passengers was equal to the strain of finding out. +At last it was rumored that the _Baron Korff_ could go no farther, +and that we must wait for a boat of lighter draught to take us up to +Blagavestchensk. After several hours, two other steamers came sweeping +down the river, and brought up with a graceful curve and flourish, like +a stage-coach in the olden times, at our anchorage. They were little +boats, cramped and dirty as compared with the _Baron Korff_, and many +were the groans of the passengers that the change must be made. But low +water is no respecter of persons, and we were told that at four o’clock +in the morning we must make the transfer. At midnight, however, the +captain changed his mind and concluded to scrape through if he could, +so, getting up steam, at two o’clock he started. The critical shallows +were reached. The _Baron_ scraped and grated on the sandy bottom. A +half inch less of water and she would have been stranded, perhaps for +a day. But the captain whistled down the speaking-tube for full speed +ahead, the engineer opened the throttle-valve, the engine responded, +and, with a mighty shove and jerk, our great leviathan pushed herself +over the shallows and into the deeper water beyond. It was a “close +call,” but on the Amour, as elsewhere, an inch is as good as an ell. + +About eight o’clock in the evening, precisely five days after +leaving Khabaroffsk, the beautiful spires of the great churches of +Blagavestchensk appeared in sight above the tree-tops, and, sweeping +around a bend in the river and heading due north, we were soon +alongside the bustling wharf of the metropolis of eastern Siberia. In +these five days from Khabaroffsk we had journeyed nine hundred and +eighteen versts, or about six hundred miles, having made an average of +less than five miles an hour, which is about the average rate of speed +on the Amour River when there are no extraordinary delays. Here ended +the first stage of our river journey, for now we must wait two days +and then change to a smaller steamer that can more easily scrape over +the shallows that are before us on the upper reaches of the river. + +[Illustration: A MODEST TRIUMPHAL ARCH AT A LITTLE SIBERIAN VILLAGE] + + + + +VIII + +A SIBERIAN CAPITAL + + +Blagavestchensk, a mouthful of a name for any one but a Russian, is a +surprising city to be found in the heart of the wild woods of eastern +Siberia. + +Almost immediately after our departure it was besieged by the Chinese +and became well known the world around as one of the storm-centres of +the Yellow Tempest. But I must confess that my knowledge of geography +was so defective that I had scarcely heard the name of this city three +weeks before I saw it. + +[Illustration: “EACH WOMAN HUGGING TWO OR THREE BOTTLES OF MILK”] + +Had I been particularly conceited on this point, my geographical pride +would have received a severe blow, for here is the natural metropolis +of a vast section, as large as all New England, with New York, +Pennsylvania, and New Jersey thrown in. Here is a city of nearly 40,000 +inhabitants, with wide streets, as fine blocks for its leading banks +and stores as Portland, Maine, or Portland, Oregon, could show, or any +of the smaller cities of the Union; very comfortable hotels, and at +least five really fine churches. + +The glories of Blagavestchensk, moreover, are not in the past by any +means, but largely in the future, as is evidenced by the amount of +new building going on. Piles of brick, masons and hod-carriers, and +carpenters and stone-cutters, are seen everywhere, busy at their +trades, and it is evident that Blagavestchensk is preparing for the +time when the Siberian Railway will be completed from Stretinsk to +Khabaroffsk, and still further add to her importance as the chief +city on the Amour--indeed, the chief city between Lake Baikal and the +Pacific. + +We did not have time, however, to make these observations on the +evening of our arrival, for before the _Baron Korff_ was made +fast it was half-past nine o’clock, and nearly dark. Having heard +of the Central Hotel, and knowing not whether it was good, bad, or +indifferent, we directed the drosky man to drive thither, which he did, +and soon set us down in front of a large brick building of imposing +dimensions. But here our troubles began. No office could be discovered. +No one seemed to be in charge. The register which hung in the front +hall--a large blackboard with the numbers of the rooms written in +chalk--indicated that every room, with one exception, was full. At +last a peasant, in Russian blouse and top-boots, appeared who seemed +to belong to the establishment; but, alas! he spoke a word of naught +but Russian. To polyglot inquiries: “Do you speak English?” “Sprechen +Sie Deutsch?” “Parlez-vous français?” he responded with a “nyet,” and a +helpless shake of the head. At length his instinct, or our bad Russian, +enabled him to understand that we wished lodgings for the night, and +he showed us to a large room with a single narrow bed, a sofa, and some +chairs. + +But there were four in this particular party that sought the shelter +of the Central Hotel--two ladies, a small boy, and a man. It was +evident that all could not be accommodated in these limited quarters. +What could be done about it? All the other hotels were crowded. It +was ten o’clock at night, and we were on the sidewalk outside of this +thoroughly Russian hotel, with our baggage unloaded from the tarantass. +At this opportune moment our good genius came to our rescue in the +shape of a young Russian lieutenant who spoke French, and who insisted +on my sharing his room with him, so that the ladies and the small boy +might have the only vacant room. Moreover, he acted as translator, +asked for another bed, arranged prices, and in every possible way +became our guide, interpreter, and friend. I shared his room for two +days, and when I tried to pay for my part of it he absolutely refused, +saying, with the utmost delicacy, but with firm insistence: “I could +not think of it. You are my guest.” + +Would such graceful and delicate hospitality be found in New York, +or Chicago, or London? I very much doubt it, or whether the average +American, or even the exceptional American, would have taken a +foreigner into his room, and, for a couple of days, concerned himself +for the welfare of a party of absolute strangers. + +Our good angel in military clothes had recently graduated at the +Russian West Point, and had been stationed at Nikolskoie, on the +Siberian frontier. He was on his way to visit his mother at St. +Petersburg, and thence to the Paris Exposition. As I expected to travel +farther with him, I neglected to learn his name. But he was detained at +the last moment, and I shall not be able to send him my acknowledgment +of his kindness by post, and I can scarcely hope that he will read +them in this account of our travels. What I think will please him +most, however, could he but see it in print, I will record here, that +such kindness and delicate consideration I believe to be characteristic +of the great people of whom he is such a worthy representative. + +[Illustration: THE LEADING HOTEL, BLAGAVESTCHENSK] + +While we are still at the hotel, it may give some idea of Siberian +hostelries of the better class if I say that the rooms at the Central +were large and comfortably furnished, but there were some peculiarities +which strike a traveller as odd. A bed with a mattress upon it is +provided, but no blankets, sheets, or pillows. A common wash-room, not +over tidy, served all the guests, and such a thing as a bath-tub or +a bath-room seemed unknown. Every guest is expected to bring his own +bedding, towels, and soap. Not knowing this, we naturally asked for +sheets and blankets and pillows and towels, which, after some delay, +were brought, though only one sheet, blanket, and pillow apparently +could be raised. + +What was my surprise to have a lengthy bill brought when I came to +leave, for I was conscious of having had but few “extras.” When I +inquired for a translation of the items, the waiter pointed to the +different articles ordered the night before, and then to the cabalistic +words upon the bill, and I learned that the charge was: Blanket, 25 +kopeks; sheet, 20 kopeks; pillow, 30 kopeks; towel, 15 kopeks. No +wonder the bill was a long, if not a large, one. The room itself +was only two roubles and a half, or one dollar and a quarter, for a +large double room, and the _table d’hôte_ meals, which consisted of +soup, meat, dessert, and tea, cost 80 kopeks (40 cents). Breakfast +was served in our rooms, and normally consisted of tea made on the +spot in a porcelain teapot, with water boiling hot from the samovar, +very nice and refreshing, with lemon as a substitute for milk, and +bread-and-butter. We did not attempt the coffee, which is not the +national drink, and does not compare with the tea. On tea and +bread-and-butter the Russian would be sure to break his fast, though +eggs might be had by the Outlander, if he should insist upon it. + +[Illustration: THE CEMETERY AT BLAGAVESTCHENSK] + +It so happened that the day after our arrival at Blagavestchensk was +the emperor’s birthday, and all the city was in holiday mood. But it +seemed to take its pleasure seriously, if not sadly, as the English +are said to do. A few flags were flying, the churches were open, and +the stores were closed, and a general air of solemnity pervaded the +town. The great German store of Kunst & Albers was religiously closed +in front and the curtains drawn, but I was told that it had a back +door, like the saloons in Maine. As my conscience did not compel me to +observe the emperor’s birthday sacredly, I sought the side entrance, +where I made some necessary purchases. + +I may mention for the benefit of future travellers that many of the +necessaries of life cost about the same in eastern Siberia as in +New York--linen collars two dollars a dozen, cuffs twice that sum, +shirts, underclothing, and other dry goods in like proportion. Two +of the stores in Blagavestchensk, Kunst & Albers and a Russian store +nearly opposite, are really palatial in proportions and equipment. The +department store has blossomed out in full proportions in Siberia, and +it is far more surprising to find such a store as I have mentioned in +Blagavestchensk than to find Wanamaker’s, in Philadelphia, or Jordan & +Marsh, in Boston. + +Here you find books and bric-à-brac, pipes and pickles, flowers and +flat-irons, oil and oysters, waistcoats and watches, indigo and +icons. Here were attentive clerks and cash-boys (Chinese cash-boys, +by-the-way), cashier girls in their little elevated desks, receiving +the money, and all the conveniences and appliances of the great modern +establishments. + +[Illustration: ONE OF BLAGAVESTCHENSK’S BEAUTIFUL CHURCHES] + +But the chief interest in Blagavestchensk centred in the churches on +the day of our visit, especially in the blue and green military church. +Here a high mass was held in honor of the emperor. The church was +crowded with soldiers and peasants, and all were most devout and +earnest. Old peasants would come in, and, though there was scarcely +standing room, would spread down their bandannas, and, kneeling on +them, would touch their grizzled forelocks to the floor, and then +rise and join heartily in the service. This was conducted chiefly +by a priest in beautiful robes of cloth of gold, whose magnificent +bass voice chanted the service as I never heard it rendered before. +A sweet-voiced choir of boys answered the priest, and the whole +congregation joined reverentially, but in stentorian tones, in part +of the service. Behind the altar and facing the officiating priest, +whose back was to the audience, stood a figure clad, apparently, in +pure gold, and with a golden mitre upon its head. Whether man or image +I could not at first make out. But it stood so immovable, and was +apparently so solidly built of gold, that I concluded it was an image, +a huge icon, which did duty in the soldiers’ church. I thought that I +detected the image solemnly winking, but the moment after I concluded +that I was the victim of an optical illusion. Nothing so stately, +solemn, and immovable could wink. It was almost sacrilegious to think +of such a thing. But when I had fully made up my mind to the icon +theory, the golden image stepped from behind the altar, and, coming to +the front, an attendant took off his heavy mitre, and in a deep, rich +voice, he intoned the part of the service that fell to his share. + +Bowing to the cross, his golden garments wrinkled and bent like the +scales of a fish, or like the chain-armor of an ancient knight whose +corselet was of pure gold. Never have I seen in any church or temple, +in Christendom or pagandom, such gorgeous vestments or a more stately +service. I only hope that it was as intelligently devout as it was +gorgeous and impressive. + +[Illustration: A GREAT DEPARTMENT STORE IN BLAGAVESTCHENSK, WITH +MARKET-PLACE IN FRONT] + +Some of the Greek priests, whose writings I have read, like Father +John, of Kronstadt, are as deeply imbued with the Spirit of God as +Thomas à Kempis or John Tauler of old, or as Andrew Murray and F. B. +Meyer of the present day. A fine, sweet, mystical vein runs through +their writings, which shows that they have seen the Invisible and heard +the Inaudible, and their writings are as refreshing as a draught of +clear spring water in this thirsty commercial age. + +So may it have been with the holy fathers of Blagavestchensk! I could +not judge, for all their service was to me in an unknown tongue. I will +give them the full benefit of the doubt. + +The streets of Blagavestchensk on this holiday were full of soldiers, +who marched in orderly file from their barracks to the church and +back again. They were fine, stalwart, manly fellows, marching in +perfect alignment, and with an easy swing which did one’s eyes good to +see, after beholding for a few weeks the slouchy straggle of Chinese +soldiers. They were an orderly, well-behaved lot, too, and I saw no +rioting or drunkenness. The log-cabin which served as a soldiers’ +guard-house seemed to have few occupants. The soldiers did not know +how soon their holiday manners would be changed into grim and deadly +warfare with the yellow men on the opposite bank of the Amour. + +Blagavestchensk, though it has a few large and imposing buildings, is +largely a log-built city. Nine-tenths of the houses are of hewn logs, +but most of them are prettily painted and are not without appropriate +ornamentation. I never had believed that a log-house city could be so +picturesque and substantial in appearance. + +Upon the churches the people have lavished their chief wealth. At least +three of them are costly and beautiful buildings that would do honor +to any European capital, and a fourth that is building will, when +completed, surpass them all. It is really a building of remarkable +stateliness and beauty. + +[Illustration: AN UPPER AMOUR RIVER STEAMER + +Buriats’ hut in foreground] + +In the cathedral I saw for the first time the Black Christ and the +Black Virgin, which are often seen in Greek churches. The pictures in +all the churches impressed me as a much higher grade of art than one +sees in the ordinary church on the continent of Europe. + +When we were in Blagavestchensk we had little thought that this +obscure capital was so soon to figure in the world’s telegrams, or +that it could be besieged and bombarded by the Chinese. But history +in the far East was making itself rapidly about that time, and we +had scarcely left Blagavestchensk a week behind, when the apparently +peaceful Celestials, inspired from Peking, attacked and for a long time +bombarded this inoffensive city. + +As I write, the outcome of the immediate conflict is still in the +balance, but it can scarcely be doubted that in the long run the Giant +of the North will win his way through Siberia and Manchuria into the +heart of China, and that the siege of Blagavestchensk will really +hasten the awakening of China from her sleep of the ages. + +On the evening of the second day, we were glad to take passage once +more for the upper reaches of the Amour, the most difficult, uncertain, +and tedious part of our journey. + +“_If you have tears, prepare to shed them now_” might have been our +motto as we went aboard the crowded little steamer and realized that +Stretinsk, the terminus of our river journey, was 1197¼ versts away, +and that, much of the way, less than four feet of water separated our +keel from the sandy bottom of the Amour. But how we scraped over the +sand-banks from Blagavestchensk to Stretinsk must be reserved for +“another story.” + +[Illustration: ON THE UPPER AMOUR] + + + + +IX + +AGROUND IN THE AMOUR + + +Two Mississippi River captains were once conversing as to the merits of +their respective steamers as light-draught boats. One claimed that his +steamer could run in a good heavy dew. The other, not to be outdone, +claimed that that was nothing, for his boat could run on the sweat +of an ice-pitcher. It is this latter kind of boat that is needed on +the upper reaches of the Amour River, as we began to think before we +were many miles from Blagavestchensk. We had scarcely gone five miles +before we heard that peculiar crunching, scraping, gritty sound which +we came to know so well. The paddle-wheels revolved fruitlessly for +a few minutes, but it was no use, and we knew that we were hard and +fast aground in less than three feet of water. For hours the boatmen +worked with might and main, and at last we could feel that there was +water under our keel and that we were making slow progress against the +current once more. But we had scarcely been moving another hour when +c-r-u-n-c-h, s-c-r-a-p-e, s-t-o-p, and there we were stuck on another +sand-bank. The captain seemed to tear his hair in despair, and well he +might, for Stretinsk was 1187 versts away, and we had scarcely come +ten versts in ten hours from Blagavestchensk. If it requires ten hours +to do ten versts, how long will it take to reach Stretinsk, was an +appalling problem in mental arithmetic. + +However, we made somewhat better progress after getting off the second +time, and the hope that springs eternal in the human breast kept us +from despair of reaching in time the important engagement at our +journey’s end. + +[Illustration: TUMBLING ASHORE FROM THE _ADMIRAL CHICACHOFF_] + +The _Ivan Vishnegradskie_ was a much smaller steamer than the _Baron +Korff_, and consequently much more crowded. Especially were the +third-class passengers much in evidence, for there were no steerage +accommodations, and they were obliged to lie about anywhere as best +they could, in the passages, on the companion-way, huddled on the +boiler deck, lying out on the wood-pile or anchor chains; every +available foot of deck room had its two human feet to occupy it. + +It is said that the birth-rate of Siberia is higher than any other +country in the world, amounting to fifty-six in the thousand. I could +well believe it as I saw the uncounted, tow-headed babies tucked into +every nook and cranny of the _Ivan Vishnegradskie_. Head to heel and +heel to head, they lay, with their fathers and mothers and older +brothers and sisters lying about them four square, building, as it +were, a sort of living rampart around the family compound. It was +pathetic to see a mother lay her three little children out in a row, +with the croupy baby in the middle, while she herself sat in the +draughty doorway all night long to shield them from the wind. + + “She bared her bosom to the storm, + And smiled to think her babe was warm.” + +For two days we sailed on this crowded little craft. The river turns +almost due north after leaving Blagavestchensk. A very tortuous stream +is the Amour from here on, turning and twisting and doubling on itself +like a huge serpent writhing in agony. Following its twistings we made +very little progress, even when we could steam all day long, which the +treacherous shoals did not often allow us to do. The shores on either +side were often picturesque and beautiful, and sometimes grand and +striking, with bare cliffs of rock rising sheer from the water’s edge +to a height of four or five hundred feet. + +The park-like effect of the clean, open woods continued, and made it +difficult to believe that the country had not been thickly inhabited +for a thousand years, except that the utter absence of habitations +dispelled the illusion. + +On the second day out from Blagavestchensk we were obliged to change +steamers and take up our abode in the _Admiral Chicachoff_, the +regular steamer of this line, which had not been able to get so far +down the river as the above-named city. The _Admiral_ was a somewhat +larger boat than the _Ivan_, and had much better accommodations for +the steerage passengers, who no longer had to sleep in doorways and +draughty passages, but had the after upper deck roofed over for their +accommodation. The steamers of the line on which we were embarked +carried the government mail, and were supposed to be more sure of +reaching their destination than the other river-steamers, of which +there are many lines on the Amour. + +Frequently we passed other steamers going down with the current at a +famous rate of speed compared with our slow and toilsome ascent of the +river. More often we passed great rafts of timber, with little bark +huts built upon them, in which families lived and moved and had their +being for weeks and perhaps months at a time, as they let the force +of the current carry them down the stream, and tied up to the bank +at night to avoid the passing steamers. Sometimes the rafts would be +loaded with horses that seemed to enjoy their floating quarters, and +who lived off the country, for it was only necessary to tie the raft to +the shore and drive its living freight into the rich pasturage, which +in many places could be obtained free, gratis, for nothing. + +[Illustration: CHILDREN OF EMIGRANTS PICKING WILD FLOWERS ON THE BANKS +OF THE AMOUR] + +The monotony of the voyage was varied by a stop once or twice every +twenty-four hours to take on wood, or at some little log village on +the river’s margin. On the occasion of these stops the passengers +would tumble ashore almost before the gangplank made connections, and +would spend the time as the fancy seized them, in the woods or on the +pebbly margin of the river. The youngsters would scale the bluffs, +which usually abounded near the wood-piles, or would come back from +the meadows laden with great armfuls of beautiful wild flowers. Lilies +of the valley seemed to abound everywhere, violets, blue and white +forget-me-nots, lady slippers, and another beautiful orchid somewhat +similar, which I have never seen elsewhere. In other places, blue +honeysuckles were found, and yellow lilies, and Solomon’s seal, and the +yellowest of buttercups. Indeed, the flora of the country seemed to be +exceedingly extensive, embracing most of the spring flowers with which +I am familiar in New England, except the arbutus, and many flowers that +I had never seen before. The trees were mostly white and yellow birch, +poplar, white oak, soft maple, larch, and pine. The wood-piles, cut +for the use of the river steamers, were interminable, and consisted of +beautiful, straight, knotless sticks of birch and pine that it seemed a +pity to sacrifice in the rapacious maw of our never-satisfied boilers, +to go up in smoke and sparks. + +While the smaller fry were racing on the shore or gathering wild +flowers, their more sedate elders among the steerage passengers would +kindle a little fire of driftwood on the shore and cook a savory +pot of stew to vary the crude monotony of their daily fare. Or the +forethoughtful mothers would improve the opportunity to scrub their +offspring or wash their clothes, pounding the latter upon the stones. +Sometimes we would get a delicious bath in the clear, cold water which, +less than a month ago, was bound with icy fetters, for the weather, +much of the time, was extremely warm. The summers of Siberia are short +and fiercely hot. Vegetation has to be forced to maturity by Dame +Nature in six weeks, instead of taking six months, as she would do in +more leisurely climes. + +Many patches of snow and ice still lingered upon the banks, and it +could have been comparatively but few days since all the country +was snow-bound. Yet every tree seemed to be in full leaf, and ferns +and grasses in many places were knee-high and were growing with the +lustiness and vigor of a tropical summer. + +[Illustration: AN EMIGRANT HOUSE ON THE UPPER AMOUR] + +Our new steamer was no more exempt from the prosaic perils of the +sand-bar than the one we had just left, for, before we had finished the +first day we had run hard aground in a place where the current was very +swift, and where it was very difficult to get off. For seventeen hours +our officers and crew worked with a will, but to no effect. First huge +poles, like iron-shod battering-rams, as big as telegraph poles, which +could barely be lifted by six men, were hitched to the windlass by a +wire rope, and, with this, every effort was made to pry us off. But +all utterly failed. Then two telegraph poles were rigged, and finally +three, but all in vain. In the useless effort, three or four of these +huge pries were broken off short, and yet the little steamer did not +budge. Then, to lighten ship, the convict barge, which all these days +had been following in our wake, was towed alongside, and all the +passengers were requested to go on board of her. + +This gave us an opportunity to visit our fellow-passengers behind the +bars, if I may so call those who were propelled by the same steam and +were hitched to us by a single cable. It must be confessed that they +were not bad-looking fellows as men average, and the impartial visitor, +had he been asked to pick out the convicts by their looks, would, very +likely, have chosen the hardened criminals from among the free men on +top of the barge, instead of from among those whom the law had put +into the cage below. Possibly even some of the first-class passengers +who had paid thirty roubles for their voyage would have been chosen, +instead of those who had fare and board paid by the government. My +idea of the severity with which Russia treats her Siberian exiles +was also modified when I saw the clean and comparatively comfortable +quarters of the prisoners, which compared most favorably with the +steerage accommodations on our own steamer. There were not many +prisoners in the cage, and they were going from the crowded prisons of +Vladivostock or Khabaroffsk to other prisons in the interior. One poor +fellow was landed at a little river town, and in his heavy felt boots +and overcoat, though it was a broiling day, was marched between two +soldiers to a new prison, or, perhaps, handed over to some man who had +bought his labor for a time. + +[Illustration: THE MEN BEHIND THE BARS ON THE PRISON BARGE] + +But we had gone aboard the convict barge to lighten our ship, and not +to inspect the prisoners. It was all of no avail, however, and some new +method must be tried. So an anchor was carried out into mid-stream, +two hundred yards away, perhaps; the steam windlass was again brought +into play and, little by little, inch by inch, we were coaxed off the +sand-bar, the flat bottom creaking and groaning as the steamer scraped +along, as though unwilling to leave her comfortable bed. Seventeen +hours had been wasted, and not a third of our voyage had been +accomplished. + +After this experience our captain was very cautious, and when he came +to shallow places would anchor, and often spent several hours in a +small boat in ascertaining the channel and marking it with sticks +driven into the sand. Then the _Admiral_ would start up slowly and +warily. Two men, one on either side of the bow, with sounding-poles, +would constantly take the water and report to the first officer of +the deck above, who shouted it back to the man at the wheel. “Vosem” +(eight), “sem” (seven), “shest” (six), he would call, and no one would +feel anxious, for the _Admiral_ only draws two feet and a half; but +when it came to “pyat polovina” (five and one-half), to “pyat” (five), +or to “chiteery” (four), we began to be interested. + +When, in stentorian tones, the leadsman would call “trees polovina” +(three and one-half), and his mate on the other side would call +“trees,” and the first officer would shout to the wheel, “trees,” we +would positively hold our breath, and sit more lightly in our chairs +to ease the ship, until again the leadsman would reassuringly cry +“chiteery,” “pyat,” “shest,” “sem,” and we would feel that we were +safely over one more bar. + + + + +X + +ON THE SHILKA + + +Our progress up the Amour was slow but not sure. Time after time the +experience described in the last chapter would be repeated. We would +touch bottom, scrape on the sand, the engines would make desperate +efforts to pull us off into deep water, but would finally give up in +despair, slow down, stop altogether, and for one hour, or ten, or +twenty, we must possess our souls in patience, until, with infinite +pains, our craft was floated once more. + +[Illustration: THE HILL-SIDES WERE CARPETED WITH FLOWERS] + +We were told before starting that the journey from Blagavestchensk +to Stretinsk would not take more than seven days, or seven days and +one-half; but seven times twenty-four hours passed and Stretinsk was +still four hundred miles away, and not half the distance had been +traversed. The alarming tale was circulated that the water was falling +at the rate of two inches a day. The usual story about this being an +extraordinary season was current--“not for thirteen years had the water +been so low,” etc. I am inclined to think that every year on the Amour +is “extraordinary,” and that, especially in the month of June, those +who essay this journey must count on spending as much time on the +sand-banks as in deep water. + +Still, for those who are in no haste to reach their journey’s end, +who can put up with very indifferent food, and who can good-naturedly +accept the inevitable, there are many and delightful compensations in +this new way around an old world. The scenery throughout the whole +journey is pleasing, and, much of the way, it is extremely beautiful. +A hundred miles beyond Blagavestchensk we passed some remarkable high +bluffs, seamed with coal or lignite in narrow, diagonal veins. In many +places this coal had caught fire, and for years had been burning with +an unquenchable flame. The scene, as we passed, was one of striking +beauty. The sun was just setting behind the western hills, lighting up +the evening clouds with golden and crimson glory. The broad river swept +in a grand and graceful curve around a pine-clad mountain that towered +a thousand feet above its placid waters, while, as the light of the +dying day waned, glowing jewels appeared in the mountainside, where the +burning coal was afire, or little bursts of flame, as from a hundred +gas-jets, lit up the gaunt and seamy cliff. + +[Illustration: A TYPICAL WATER-TOWER ON THE TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY] + +Two days later, and a hundred miles farther on, the same scene was +repeated with a still lovelier variation. Again it was just at the hour +of setting sun, the most delicious of all the day, for the boiling heat +of the day was over, and the cool breezes of evening had begun to blow. +On the Chinese shore of the great river high cliffs like the Palisades +of the Hudson stretched westward for miles, with tops as even and +flat as Table Mountain at Cape Town. Here and there, throughout their +whole length, these cliffs, too, were seamed and veined with fire. +Oftentimes green shrubs overhung the seams of coal, or pine-trees grew +below them, their upper branches athwart the narrow line of fire, so +that again the Scripture miracle seemed to be repeated, and the burning +bush was not consumed. Imagine the Palisades on a wilder and grander +scale, illuminated by their own internal fires, and you have an idea of +this night scene on the Amour. + +Seven days out from Blagavestchensk, the day we should have completed +our river journey, we again stuck fast on a sand-bar for nearly twenty +hours. This delay was all the more uncomfortable on account of the +extreme heat, unalleviated by the breeze caused by the boat’s motion, +and the discomfort was aggravated by innumerable huge green-headed +flies, larger than the biggest horse-fly I ever saw in America. These +flies showed all the idiosyncrasy of the average house-fly in returning +time after time, with the utmost persistence, to the same unguarded +spot on ear, or nostril, or back of neck, and, being about ten times as +large, their attentions were fully ten times as unpleasant as those of +the house-fly. + +At length we rubbed our way, inch by inch, over the shallows and into +deeper water, and an hour later found ourselves at Albazin, a small +and decayed village four hundred miles from Blagavestchensk. Albazin +has no glories in the present, but it is famous as the place where, +two hundred years ago, a Russian garrison was defeated by the Chinese, +and four hundred prisoners carried off to Peking. As a result of this +victory a treaty of peace was concluded, and the north bank of the +Amour again became Chinese territory. The Great Bear of the North is +sometimes defeated and retreats to her den, but it is only to nurse her +wounds and to come out again, stronger than ever, to win, either by +arms or diplomacy, perhaps two hundred years later, a new victory which +will wipe out old scores. + +[Illustration: THE LIGNITE CLIFFS ON THE AMOUR] + +Two hundred years have elapsed since the Russian garrison was carried +off to Peking, but Albazin is again in Russian territory, which +stretches fifteen hundred miles beyond to the very shores of the +Pacific, while Manchuria itself and China, almost to the very gates of +Peking, seem likely soon to become Russian provinces. + +“That, too, is our country,” said a Russian judge, one of our +travelling companions, as he pointed with a sweep of the hand to the +Manchurian shore. “That, too, is our country.” And his was no empty +boast, even if a little premature. + +It is an interesting fact that the descendants of the Russian garrison +carried from Albazin to Peking still live in the Chinese capital. They +married Chinese wives, but organized a distinct community of their own, +in which the Greek Church has flourished ever since. + +Ten miles from Albazin we stopped at the larger and more flourishing +town of Renova, that owes its prosperity to some large placer +gold-mines, which, like all Russian gold-mines, are a government +monopoly. All gold discovered and dug must be sold to the government +at a price fixed by it below the market price. Of course, much is +smuggled out of the country, and such a law is death to genuine private +enterprise; but the laws are strict, and no foreigner is allowed to +filch the gold from the czar’s private purse, _i.e._, the bowels of the +earth. + +The next day we reached the final limit of travel on the _Admiral +Chicachoff_. She could go no farther, and we were transferred to a +great barge, not unlike the prisoners’ cage which we had been towing +all this distance. This barge, which for another week was to be our +abiding-place, drew only one foot and a half of water, and was towed +by a tug which also drew but eighteen inches. On this craft we were to +enter the Shilka and stem the current for three hundred miles farther +to Stretinsk. + +Each change we had made was a descent. We had gone from luxury on the +_Baron Korff_ through different grades of discomfort, until we had come +to the superlative degree of discomfort on the barge _Diana_. + +The men among the first-class passengers were all herded together in +one cabin, and the women in another, and the decks and passageways +were so littered with third-class passengers and their belongings, +that it was with great difficulty that we could pick our way over +stout, extended legs, and tender baby toes, and peasant women suckling +still smaller babies, who filled every nook and crevice. Clad in great +sheepskin garments, + + “With the skinny side out and the woolly side in,” + +and with huge top-boots, worn often by the women as well as the men, +the Moujiks defied the cold night air and the intensely hot mid-day +sun, always sprawled out, day and night, at full length, except when +they went ashore at landing-places to cook their scanty meals over a +brushwood fire. + +Of course, exercise under these circumstances was out of the question +on shipboard, and, as can be imagined, we all made the most of our +stops at the wood-piles for a little run on shore. + +Travel on Siberian rivers, like poverty and politics, makes strange +bedfellows, and in the men’s cabin were a polyglot company, consisting +of a German baron, a Swiss consul, a Dane, two French “bounders,” two +Russians, two Scotchmen, a North of Ireland man, and two Americans. All +made the best of the situation except the Frenchmen, who sputtered and +growled at everything, and made themselves generally disagreeable. Like +Mrs. Gummidge, they seemed to say of all the discomforts: “I feels it +more than others.” Especially did the food, which indeed was atrocious, +come in for their objurgations. At last the climax was reached when +one of these irascible Gauls found that sugar had been put in his +cabbage. His gastronomic canons were all outraged, and, throwing the +cabbage, dish and all, out of the window into the river, he flung a +full bottle of beer at the waiter, narrowly missing a lady’s head, and +only then felt that his outraged culinary taste had been fully avenged. + +[Illustration: THE EVER-PRESENT SAMOVAR] + +But for the most the company on the _Diana_ was a happy family, and +though a “Never Again Society” was proposed (never again to cross +Siberia by this route), we often consoled ourselves with the reflection +that things “might be worse.” + +On the second day after boarding the barge the Amour, so far as we +were concerned, came to an end, or, rather, we came to its abrupt +beginning, for, at a junction point of entrancing scenery, the Argun +and the Shilka, two great rivers, come together to form the Amour, +after having pursued their separate and devious ways for hundreds +of miles. The Argun flows sharply from south to north, the Shilka +pursues a northeasterly course. To be sure, the Shilka is really the +Amour, and ought to bear the same name to its source, but for boundary +purposes the Russians choose to call it another river, and to bound +their possessions by the left branch of the Amour, called the Argun. +We turned into the Shilka and were soon steaming against its swiftly +flowing current. + +Now, at length, after coasting along the Manchurian shore for over a +thousand miles, we leave China and plunge into the heart of Siberian +Russia. On either side the mountains close in on the Shilka, dipping +their feet in its rapid, crystal stream, and narrowing it down to +less than a quarter of a mile in width. Wild and picturesque is the +scenery for almost the whole distance to Stretinsk. The fertile arable +land and vast open parks of the Amour give way to rough and rugged +hill-sides, clad with a growth of small trees, but affording scant +encouragement for the agriculturist. The villages are fewer and farther +between, and the scanty houses are of a distinctly poorer type. In +fact, the whole country is given up to placer gold-mining and to +cutting wood for the frequent steamers, and almost no cultivation is +attempted. + +[Illustration: SOME FIFTH-CLASS PEOPLE] + +It even became difficult, and at last impossible, to secure milk and +eggs on shore, and some of the scanty fare provided by the steamer’s +steward might have been called “rotten” by the college boy without +indulging in slang. + +But the natural scenery grew more charming as the evidence of man’s +handiwork disappeared. The hill-sides were carpeted with flowers; +lilies of the valley, azaleas, and a half-dozen kinds of rare and +beautiful orchids abounded everywhere, and the air was fragrant with +the new-made leaves of birch and pine. Cuckoos struck all hours of the +day from the deeper forest, and a sylvan beauty that I have rarely +seen surpassed constantly greeted our eyes. + +Frequently during these days on the Shilka we passed great rafts, +floating down stream with the current, loaded with emigrant families, +men, women, and children, horses, cattle, and dogs, and all the little +store of household goods that the poor Moujiks possessed. Sometimes +a small bateau would contain a family of seven or eight people and +all their belongings. Occasionally great barges towed by a tug-boat +would pass us, and these were invariably crowded with such a mass of +humanity that one wondered how all could stand by day, much less lie +down by night. These crowded rafts and barges headed eastward were most +suggestive of Russia’s policy. Hers is a peaceful conquest of the far +East. First she must fill up the waste places of Siberia, and then she +can stretch out her hand over all Manchuria and northern China, and +even in spite of temporary Mongolian uprisings she can hold her own, +with no fear of a repetition of the disaster of Albazin, and another +exclusion for centuries from Manchuria. + +[Illustration: A RAFT ON THE SHILKA] + +With one barge company alone the government has made a contract to +transport thirty thousand peasants within three months to the lower +waters of the Amour. Thousands of others will find their way by other +methods of conveyance. Liberal land laws and government aid while they +are getting established will result in a few years in tens of thousands +of log-house homes that in time will make this wilderness to blossom +like the rose. + +As we approached Stretinsk signs of civilization became more numerous. +Cultivated fields appeared. Winter wheat already seemed to be ripening, +forced to maturity by a few weeks of the almost continuous sunlight +of this northern clime. The interesting village of Oost Kara, about +seventy miles from Stretinsk, lies on the right bank of the Shilka, +and is supported by extensive gold-mines, which are worked by +convicts--criminals, not political prisoners, I am told. + +At length, on the 21st day of June, thirteen days after leaving +Blagavestchensk, and twenty-one days after embarking on the Amour at +Khabaroffsk, we were glad enough to bid good-bye to the _Diana_, its +crowded decks, and its wretched fare, and still more glad to feel that +our long river voyage, which had stretched itself out from the twelve +days which we had expected to twenty-one, was at length at an end, and +that the rest of the journey would be behind the iron horse on land, +instead of his aquatic cousin, the puffing steamboat. + + + + +XI + +THE TRANS-BAIKAL + + +We had supposed, as has already been remarked, that if we had tears +to shed, we should need to indulge them on the last part of our river +journey. But we soon found that we should have saved them all for the +journey on the Trans-Baikal Railway between Stretinsk and Irkutsk, as +the sequel will show. + +Stretinsk is a raw, shabby, straggling frontier town, whose only excuse +for being so uninteresting is that it is very new and never thought of +being a place of any importance until it suddenly found itself, on the +28th of December, 1899, the terminus of the Trans-Baikal Railway, and +an important forwarding point for freight and passengers between the +Atlantic and Pacific. The large railway shops and engine-houses are +situated across the river from the town, which is connected with them +by a ferry, ingeniously worked by the swift current of the Shilka, like +the picturesque ferry at Bonn, on the Rhine. The hotels of Stretinsk +are wretched inns, and there are absolutely no attractions within the +town to persuade the traveller to remain. But, in justice even to the +squalid raggedness of Stretinsk, it must be admitted that fine hills +encircle it and a noble river washes its feet, for the Shilka, in spite +of shoals and shallows, is still a mighty stream, and runs even here +with a large, impetuous flow. + +We were glad enough to find that we must remain in Stretinsk only +thirty-six hours, and that the train which was to carry us to Lake +Baikal was to start the following night. We were still more rejoiced to +find that the good governor of Vladivostock, General Tchitchagoff, had +not forgotten us, but had wired for a special car for our use. The +car was very small, and held but five people, and, as can be imagined, +it was not built on the latest Pullman plan, but, as compared with the +cars assigned to our three hundred fellow-passengers, it was a _car de +luxe_, indeed. + +[Illustration: SIBERIAN RECRUITS BOUND FOR CHINA] + +This road is not yet officially opened for traffic, and we were taken +on sufferance, as it were. At least, most of those who take it have to +suffer severely. Nor can they complain overmuch, for the government +does not invite them to go or advertise any attractions. The best cars +that are yet run, with the exception of the little _car de luxe_, of +which I have just spoken, are marked “fourth class,” and are no better +than they pretend to be. They have wooden seats of the hardest possible +variety, and three wooden shelves, one above another, afford cramped +opportunity for a man not more than five feet long to stretch himself +out. Each of these cars, with three tiers of shelves, is supposed to +afford accommodations for forty-three people. But these are the best, +as I have said. Others, which might be termed fifth class, if the +nomenclature of railway trains descended so far, are simply box-cars, +with no seats, and marked on the outside, “to carry twelve horses +or forty-three men.” Into these cars there crowded, helter-skelter, +pell-mell, higgledy-piggledy, Russians and Siberians, Moujiks and +Chinamen, Tartars, Buriats and Englishmen, Frenchmen, Germans, and +Americans. + +If there were fifth-class cars, there were plenty of sixth and seventh +class people--some in rags, and many in tags, but few in velvet gowns. +Old Moujiks, with half a dozen half-naked children, filthy with a grime +that has accumulated since their birth, and alive with unmentionable +parasites, crowded every car, or, rather, human pigpen, as each car +soon becomes. Odors indescribably offensive made the air thick and +almost murky. The stench, the dirt, the vermin grew worse the longer +the car was inhabited, and one simply resigned himself to the +inevitable and lived through each wearisome hour as best he could. + +[Illustration: FOR THIRTY-SIX MORTAL HOURS WE WAITED] + +Our non-Russian fellow-passengers, when they found the true state of +affairs, made a desperate resistance to their fate, and after repeated +remonstrances, objurgations, and even threats, which nearly came to +blows, induced the station-master to put on another little car, which +they could have for themselves. + +We fondly hoped that the governor’s kindness had spared us the heaviest +affliction of the journey; but alas! even the best-hearted governor +cannot insure all the bridges on the line, and we had not been +travelling a half-dozen hours when we learned that a bridge had burned +down twenty miles ahead, owing to the carelessness of a fireman who +drew the fire on the wooden sleepers, and there we were stranded as +fast as though on a sand-bar on the Shilka. + +For thirty-six mortal hours we waited at that wretched railway town, +which consisted principally of a round-house and a water-tower, then +were pulled to the burned bridge, twenty miles away, and, with much +difficulty and long delay, were transferred to the train on the other +side. Here our good fortune deserted us. Our comparatively fine car +could not, of course, cross the bridge, the governor could do nothing +more for us, and in the general scramble we found ourselves in one of +those dreadful fourth-class cars I have already described, with the +Moujiks, the filth, and the vermin destined to be our companions for +four weary days and nights. + +[Illustration: A TRANS-BAIKAL TRAIN. PRISONERS CARRYING WATER] + +After passing the burned bridge our train met with no serious delay, +though our rate of progress was exceedingly moderate. The whole +distance to Irkutsk is about seven hundred miles, and we managed to +consume three days and a half of actual travel in covering it. It would +seem impossible to the uninitiated in Siberian travel that a railway +train that could go at all could go so slowly. Two hundred miles a +day, or about eight miles an hour, is scarcely more than post-horses +would make. This is accounted for by reason of the interminable, +unreasonable length of the stops at the stations. Our train would +draw up at a wood-pile and a log-house. The peasants would scramble +out of the train, build their fires, cook their soup, boil their +tea, and still the train would wait. There was usually no baggage to +be taken on or put off, no passengers to join us, no passing train +to wait for. Water would soon be taken, and still we would wait, a +half-hour, three-quarters, a full hour. At last, for no particular +reason, apparently, the station-master would ring a big dinner-bell. +Five minutes later he would ring another. Then, soon after, the guard +would blow his whistle, the engineer would respond with the engine +whistle, the guard would blow again, the engineer would answer him once +more, and, after this exchange of compliments, the train would move +leisurely along, only to repeat the process two hours later at the +next station. + +The stops ranged from half an hour to two hours in length, and the +speed attained about fifteen miles an hour while running. Fortunately +the stations are few and far between, averaging nearly thirty miles +apart. + +The only towns of any importance on this line are Chita and +Verkneydinsk, the former about two hundred and the latter about five +hundred and fifty miles from Stretinsk. Verkneydinsk is a centre of the +old caravan tea trade, and retains its life in spite of the new railway. + +The Trans-Baikal province, which this railway traverses from end +to end, is the smallest of the six provinces into which Siberia is +divided, and has about six hundred thousand inhabitants, of whom +two hundred thousand belong to the aboriginal tribes. Much of it +seems exceedingly fertile, and vast savannas, stretching away from +the railway track as far as the eye can reach on either side, are +frequently seen during the early part of the journey. Thousands of +cattle and horses roam on these great flat prairies, which, often, are +as level as a house floor for miles. In other parts of this journey the +scenery is beautiful and picturesque, but never grand, the mountain +range which is crossed being not a lofty one. For many miles the +railway follows the winding of the Shilka River, usually high above its +banks. Then it crosses the plains, and afterwards, some four hundred +miles from the starting point, plunges among the pine-clad hills which +hem it in on both sides with their resinous heights. + +In other parts of the hill beautiful birches stand like white sentries +in a green livery. The flowers that carpet the fields everywhere +are lovely; marigolds and marguerites, roses and blue honeysuckles, +buttercups galore, bold tiger-lilies, modest lilies of the valley, and +white and yellow poppies make the trackside gay. + +After traversing about half the distance, the streams, which had been +flowing east into the Pacific, give way to others that flow west to +Lake Baikal. The roof of the world, or, at least, of this part of the +world, has been reached, and now we will follow the raindrops towards +the distant Atlantic. + +The Selenga, which we reach on the last day of this journey, is a +great and strong flowing river, as large as the St. Lawrence above the +Ottawa. It is crossed by a splendid iron bridge, resting on magnificent +piers of cut stone, a bridge which would be an honor to any railway in +the world. + +It is the custom of the few travellers who have crossed this line, or +any part of it, to poke fun at the Trans-Baikal Railway. And, indeed, +it is not hard to do so. With its crawling trains, its inordinately +long stops, its primitive rolling-stock, it does not inspire much +respect. It reminds one of the railway in the United States called a +“tri-weekly road,” which was explained by its president to mean that +a train went up one week, and tried to come down the next. + +[Illustration: BOUND FOR FAR SIBERIA + +A passing glimpse of an emigrant train] + +All the ancient and hoary railway jokes, like the one about the boy +who started on a half-fare ticket and was so old before he reached the +end of his journey that he had to pay full fare for the last part, are +cracked and appreciated by the passengers on this line. Yet it must be +remembered that the last spike in this road was driven less than six +months before I passed over it; that it was not even then accepted by +the government, or formally open for traffic; that it is largely built +for military exigencies, and that no one is asked to travel over it, +but rather discouraged by Russian officials; then the jokes lose their +best points. + +Still it must be confessed that the road seems to tithe the mint, +anise, and cumin, and omit the weightier matters of railway +construction. For instance, the water-towers are beautiful, stately +structures, and the stations are very creditable even for an old +railway, but the rails are light and constantly breaking and giving way +and delaying traffic for days at a time. “Two streaks of rust across +Siberia,” is the exaggeration of a friend, which has an element of +truth in it. + +Many parts of the embankment have been carefully sodded, the sods +being pegged down with great care, but the road is very imperfectly +ballasted, and is rough almost beyond belief. The culverts and small +bridges are buttressed with cut stone, carefully dressed; the cars, as +I have said, are exceedingly poor and filthy. + +Still the road is evidently built for the future, and all these defects +will, in time, be remedied, and the Trans-Baikal section will take its +place as an important link in the greatest railway of the world. + +[Illustration: FIFTEEN MINUTES AT EVERY STATION] + +During these long and weary days we were obliged to get what diversion +we could from our fellow-passengers. We watched the mother who +combed her offspring’s head with a carving-knife, with which she made +vigorous onslaught on the numerous inhabitants that had taken shelter +there, while we shuddered as we thought of the coming night in close +proximity. We were interested in the other mother who did her daily +washing in a pint cup and hung it out to dry on the upper bunk. We were +fascinated by the soldiers who performed their morning ablutions by +taking a large mouthful of water from a teapot, then, squirting it on +their hands, vigorously washed their faces. + +We never get away from the prisoners in Siberia, and two cars, +immediately in front of ours, were filled with these poor wretches. +Before these cars, at every station, marched four soldiers with set +bayonets. The heads of the prisoners, shaved on one side only, would +have betrayed them even had they escaped for a little. + +At the stations women and girls with milk and eggs were eagerly +patronized by us all, for we were desperately thirsty, and water that +we dared to drink was scarce. At some stations we saw the aborigines of +the country, the Buriats, of whom two hundred thousand remain in the +province. They are a Mongol race, and their black hair and slant eyes +contrast with the blue eyes and tow heads of the Siberians, bleached as +they were still further by the sun. + +Some of the Buriats are won to Christianity, but most of them are rank +heathen still. They are a nomadic race, and do not take kindly even to +the limited civilization of Siberia. + +[Illustration: PRISON CAR IN SIBERIA. FAMILIES OF PRISONERS AT THE +WINDOWS] + +I must record that, in the midst of the filth and discomfort and +unutterable odors of this hard journey, we met with many courtesies and +kindnesses from the most unpromising of our fellow-travellers. Some of +the peasants were ladies and gentlemen at heart, who would incommode +themselves to promote our comfort, and were never too preoccupied to +lend a helping hand, or to supplement our exceedingly limited Russian. +We discovered a “fourth-class guardian angel,” who took us under his +special protection, and was never weary of offering little kindnesses. +He even wished to share with us his black bread and some curds, which +we found it difficult to refuse without hurting his feelings. + +None of the occupants of our car were intemperate or noisy, and, +in genuine politeness of heart, these Russian serfs of a few years +back could have given many points to the two selfish, unmannerly, +foul-mouthed Frenchmen of the party, who represent the nation +erroneously supposed to have a superfluous supply of politeness and +good manners. + + + + +XII + +THE HOLY SEA + + +On the fifth day after leaving Stretinsk we were aroused at two o’clock +in the morning, just as the faint dawn began to streak the east, by a +guard going through the train and crying out: “Misovaia, all change.” +Eagerly we rubbed our sleepy eyes open, for now we had reached Lake +Baikal, and we fondly hoped that the most trying part of our journey +was over. But again we were doomed to disappointment, for we waited +and waited and waited, and still there was no sign of departure to the +other side of the lake. The sun rose, ascended high in the heavens, +reached the zenith, and began to decline, and still we sat about +miserably upon our baggage, not daring to go far lest at any moment the +“ice-breaker” from the other side of the lake might come to transfer +us across. + +The station-master was eagerly importuned, but knew nothing. No +official had the slightest information. Our Russian fellow-travellers +only shrugged their shoulders when asked when we should start. At +length patience ceased to be a virtue, and a telegram was prepared +for the governor of Irkutsk, asking why a trainload of inoffensive +passengers of all nationalities were kept in anxious suspense for so +many hours at a miserable little station which had been eaten bare of +provisions long ago. + +Just as this telegram was about to go came word that the “ice-breaker” +on the other side was waiting for the minister of justice, and that +when he got ready to start the boat would come. This proved to be the +case, and at last, fourteen hours after we had reached Misovaia, the +great steamer which should carry us across was seen approaching. Then +it took hours more to unload and reload her, and finally, in the +middle of the night, twenty-two hours after we should have started, we +got under way for the other side of the lake. + +I dwell for a moment on this irritating experience, for it represents +one phase of Russian life which is very foreign to life in free, +constitutional countries. For twenty-two hours three hundred people +were made to wait upon the convenience of one official. Hungry +passengers were allowed to half starve; sick and crying babies, who +had with difficulty survived a week of hard journeying amid unnamable +privations; weary mothers, trying to comfort the babies; business +and professional men with important engagements to keep, and whose +connections with other roads were seriously imperilled by this delay, +all must wait and suffer while this one official finished his morning +nap, or ate an elaborate dinner, or otherwise made himself ready to +start for the other side of Lake Baikal. + +[Illustration: THE ELEPHANT’S NOSE, LAKE BAIKAL] + +Had this happened in any free country, such a howl would have arisen +as would have insured the decapitation of this minister of justice +(minister of justice indeed! minister of injustice rather) at the first +possible election. + +How the _New York Tribune_ or the _London Times_ would have blazed with +indignant protests had such an affair taken place in America or Great +Britain! But in Siberia such an event is quite a matter of course. We +were still more surprised by the utter indifference and nonchalance of +our Russian fellow-passengers. There was nothing to be said and nothing +to be done. “Whatever is, is right,” especially if it is done by one +high in authority, seemed to be their motto. + +The contrast between the foreign passengers and the Russians during +this exasperating delay was marked and amusing. The former champed +at the bit, and fretted and fumed and (it is feared) swore in their +different tongues. They would gather together in little groups and +discuss the situation. They haunted the telegraph office. They +interviewed every promising official. They tried to get another +steamer. They exhausted every possibility of progress. + +The Russians placidly sipped their tumblers of tea, gathered about the +steaming samovar, quietly curled up on their luggage, and went to sleep +as though they had not an irritating care in the world. Why should they +fret? The official had all power. They had no appeal. No protest was +open to them. No _Times_ would thunder in St. Petersburg. No _Tribune_ +would voice their complaints in Moscow. “Let it go; life is too short +to wear it out with such worries,” seemed to be their mental attitude. + +The irritations of those hours of waiting, however, could not destroy +the beauty of the placid lake, the Holy Sea (Bai-Kal), on whose shores +we were waiting. + +Baikal is one of the great lakes of the world. It covers thirteen +thousand five hundred square miles of surface. Only Lakes Superior, +Michigan, and Huron, of our own great lakes, surpass it in size. It is +half as large again as Lake Erie, and twice as large as Lake Ontario, +and being long and narrow, and surrounded by high, precipitous hills, +is more picturesque than any of them. Its waters are crystal clear, +and, at a depth of forty feet, every pebble upon the bottom can be +seen. Drop a stone into its clear waters from the steamer’s deck, and +you can see it fluttering and zigzagging its way down as a feather +falls through the air. The water is as cold, too, as it is clear, as a +delicious bath that I took testified. Even on the last days of June the +water cannot be far above the freezing point. + +The peasants who live on the shores of the lake regard it with almost +superstitious reverence and love. There is in their estimation no lake +in all the world like the Baikal. Its rock-bound shores, its wooded +steeps, green with larch, and fir, and pine, and birch; its limestone +and marbles glistening in the sun; its shores strewn with bright +pebbles, washed smooth and round by countless centuries of the lapping +waves, all combine to make the Baikal worthy of the love and reverence +with which the true Siberian regards it. + +We found it in a peaceful mood, but it is not always so by any means. +“No man has ever said his prayers until he has ventured on Lake +Baikal,” is a common saying of the peasants on the shore. Lying, +as it does, in a comparatively narrow valley, between the mountain +ranges, the terrible gales which have their homes between the mountain +peaks are often let loose with but scant warning. Then woe betide the +little fisherman’s craft that is caught far from shore, and even the +passengers on the stout steamer may well tremble. + +To unite the two shores with a strong, substantial ferry-boat which can +run throughout the winter months, the railway has had constructed in +England and brought out piecemeal the huge “ice-breaker,” so called. +Several of the parts of this great craft were lost, strayed, or stolen +on the way, and infinite difficulty was experienced in putting it +together again when it reached the lake. Even now some tell me that it +is no great success as an ice-breaker. + +[Illustration: THE ICE-BREAKER ON LAKE BAIKAL] + +On a fine day, with a smooth sea, nothing could be more delightful than +a little journey on the great ships. Into the hold of the steamer runs +the whole train without unloading; or, rather, that is to be the way +when the railway is in running order. Three parallel tracks throughout +the entire length of the boat afford ample room for the longest trains. +Above are elegant accommodations for first-class passengers, while the +steerage people dispose of themselves in the hold as best they can. + +Four great stacks belch out smoke and cinders, and the engines are of +the most powerful pattern. A half acre of deck room over all gives the +passenger unrivalled opportunities of viewing the magnificent lake, +whose southern end he is about to traverse. + +A fine breakwater of wooden piles, nearly half a mile long, provides +a safe little harbor on the eastern side of the lake, while another, +not quite so large, affords a refuge from the winds on the other side. +Between these harbors the ice-breaker plies back and forth, making the +distance of about fifty miles in four hours. + +As we approach the western shore, the scenery grows more lovely than +on the eastern side. The crystal lake, fifty feet deep at the shore, +dashes in places against precipitous cliffs; the banks are clad in +freshest grass, dotted with poppies and lilies and blue honeysuckles, +while a little village nestles in a cove beneath a frowning cliff. +Rarely have I seen in all my travels a scene more lovely than is +presented as the ice-breaker makes her way cautiously into the little +artificial harbor of Listvinitschnoie, at the southwestern end of the +Holy Sea. + +In the early morning we could see, as we thought, the seals disporting +themselves in the icy waters, for it is a singular fact that in Lake +Baikal alone, of all the fresh-water lakes in the world, are seals +found. It is thought by some that in prehistoric times they made their +way up the River Yenisei, that flows from the lake into the Arctic +Ocean, two thousand miles away. At any rate, they have made themselves +very much at home in the Baikal, and have increased and multiplied and +replenished the lake. + +The determination of the Russian government to have through steam +communication between the oceans is shown by the fact that while such +sums have been spent for an ice-breaker and for harbors to make the +link across the Baikal possible, the railway is also being pushed +around the southern end of the lake, only a short distance away. +Both of these routes will be needed, I understand, to facilitate the +mobilization of her armies--the supreme object which Russia has in +mind in the construction of this great iron road. + +At the village of Listvinitschnoie, on the western side of the lake, +we had another exasperating delay of eight hours, while passengers and +baggage were being transferred to the other train, a transfer which +would have been made in America in half an hour. For half a day we sat +about on our baggage in the broiling sun, surrounded by filthy Moujiks, +while the leisurely engines puffed back and forth, and the still more +leisurely porters loaded the train. At length all was ready, and we +steamed in a leisurely fashion to Irkutsk, the great city of Central +Siberia. + +Here we arrived after being six days, within a few hours, on the road +since leaving Stretinsk. In those six days we had travelled less +than eight hundred miles, and less than six miles an hour, including +the stops. We had endured many discomforts, some of them entirely +unnecessary had a little system and forethought been used. Even in the +present incomplete state of the equipment of the road the journey +ought to be made in two days, and decent cars might be provided for +decent people. + +[Illustration: THE SHORES OF LAKE BAIKAL] + +I must say that this experience somewhat weakened my faith in the +boasted energy and enterprise of Russian railway construction. How a +road that is so slow and halting in peace can be great in war, I do not +see. How a line that cannot carry a few hundred passengers and their +luggage without interminable delays can be used to mobilize a hundred +thousand soldiers at short notice is difficult to comprehend. It is +fortunate for Russia that she has a slow, stupid opponent on the other +side of the world to contend with, an opponent that not only has no +slow railroads, but no railroads at all, of her own. + +As it is, the Trans-Baikal railway, poor as it is, will undoubtedly +prove a very important instrument in forcing beneficent Russian fetters +upon poor, decrepit, worn-out China. + + + + +XIII + +A SIBERIAN CITY OF CHURCHES + + +As the feeble and halting train that brought us from Lake Baikal, +following the meanderings of the swift Angara River, drew near to +Irkutsk, the capital of Central Siberia, we received the impression +of a small city dominated by a score of great churches. And this +impression was not dissipated when we crossed the Angara on the bridge +of boats that links the city with the railway on the other side and +found ourselves within the city precincts. + +You cannot look up without seeing a beautiful dome or spire. In the +waters of the Angara the great cathedral is reflected, flanked by two +other churches which in any other city of its size would be considered +marvels. The principal street of the city seems to lead up to and +terminate in another lofty and imposing church, while every section +of the town has its own ecclesiastical buildings of lesser magnitude. +Brooklyn must look out for its laurels as the City of Churches when it +comes in competition with Irkutsk. + +The interior of the churches is quite equal to their exterior, and they +blaze with sacred pictures and icons, framed and matted in gold, so +that the chief impression one gets is of walls of solid gold, chased +and fretted and highly ornamented, with the face of Christ or the +Virgin or some Oriental saint peering out between the shining plates. + +The Russians are evidently an extremely devout and religious +people. This is evidenced by their churches, which are always, both +metaphorically and literally, higher than the chimneys of their +factories. In the small towns along the line of the railway the church +is always the one conspicuous object. The village may be, it probably +is, built entirely of logs, without a single frame or brick house +within its border. But the church, with its glittering dome and blue +and green towers, always lifts its Greek cross skyward, and reminds +the poor Moujiks that there is another world above the flat plains of +Siberia. + +The unabashed devoutness of the peasants tells the same story as +their churches. Our fellow-travellers in the fourth-class cars from +Stretinsk never omitted their morning devotions, their ablutions being +an entirely secondary matter. The poorest boatman would always cross +himself and bless his crust of black bread before he ate it. The +soldiers with whom we journeyed for hundreds of versts, undismayed +by the presence of their comrades, would every morning face the +rising sun, and though they could secure no possible privacy, would, +with genuine devoutness, pray for ten minutes at a time, standing +bare-headed and reverential in the crowded railway car in which +they were travelling. Such genuine devotion speaks well for the church +which fosters it, and for the country that is peopled and defended by +faithful devotees, for no nation without a religion which took strong +hold of the hearts of the common people ever greatly influenced the +destinies of the world. + +[Illustration: BURIATS FROM LAKE BAIKAL, WITH SEAL FROM THE LAKE] + +Distance lends considerable enchantment to Irkutsk, and nearer approach +does not bear out the remoter promise of its beautiful churches. The +streets are poorly paved and extremely dusty, and the wooden sidewalks +are frequently man-traps for the unwary passenger. Still it is no mean +city to be found in the heart of Siberia, three thousand five hundred +miles from the nearest European capital. + +Irkutsk has had time enough to grow, for it was founded thirty years +after the _Mayflower_ sailed into Plymouth harbor, and is about ready +to celebrate its quarter millennial. Founded originally as a military +post to withstand the attacks of wandering Tartars, its naturally +advantageous situation has made it the metropolis of Siberia. It is now +the seat of government of the province of Eastern Siberia, and contains +something over fifty thousand inhabitants. It contains twenty-five +Greek churches, substantial Catholic and Lutheran churches, and two +synagogues. There are no less than forty schools, among which are +seminaries for girls, military and technical schools of various kinds, +so that the young idea of Irkutsk has no excuse for not learning how to +shoot. + +The city has lost something of its ancient importance since the region +of the Amour has been erected into a separate province, independent of +Irkutsk, and since the rise of Vladivostock as a point of departure +on the Pacific for Odessa and America. Nevertheless, it will always +be an important centre, owing to its situation near the head-waters +of the Angara, which starts from Lake Baikal, forty miles away, and +continues its majestic and ever-widening way for three thousand +miles until, as the Yenisei, the fourth greatest river in the world, it +empties into the Arctic Ocean. It is a centre for the shipment of gold, +and in a single year no less than twenty-one thousand pounds weight +avoirdupois of the precious metal passed through Irkutsk on its way to +St. Petersburg. + +[Illustration: AN IRKUTSK DROSKY] + +It may make the geography of Siberia a little more plain if I here +explain that Siberia, for governmental purposes, is divided into six +provinces: First, starting from the Ural Mountains, Western Siberia, +that borders on Europe, and in a rough way embraces the basin of the +Obi. Next, Eastern Siberia, which stretches a thousand miles farther +east and embraces the basin of the Yenisei and its tributaries. In this +province Irkutsk is situated. Then comes the Trans-Baikal, the province +that lies east of the beautiful lake of that name, and through which we +made our slow and toilsome way as described in the last chapter. Then, +east of that, the great province of the Amour, embracing the basin of +the Amour and Ussuri. Last of all, bordering on the Pacific Ocean, and +including the convict island of Saghalien, is the province called in +Russian Primorskaia. The province of the Steppes lies south of Western +Siberia, but with that our new way around the old world has nothing +to do, for the railway barely grazes its edge, and does not fairly +enter its territory. During the twenty-nine days of rail and river +travel which I have already described, we had traversed in succession +Primorskaia, Amourskaia, and Zabaikalskaia and had reached the eastern +edge of Eastern Siberia. + +During these twenty-nine days we had travelled nearly twenty-seven +hundred miles, and, between us and Moscow, there still lay more than +thirty-three hundred miles to be traversed. But the peculiar hardships +of the journey were nearly over, for a _train de luxe_ starts from +Irkutsk for Moscow every Friday afternoon, and we were just in season +to get our tickets, and secure our berths, and replenish our seedy +wardrobes, and take passage on the most famous train in all the world, +which, without a single change of cars, runs a distance considerably +greater than from Boston to San Francisco. + +[Illustration: GENERAL VIEW OF IRKUTSK] + +We were happy enough to board this train, as can be imagined, after +the bare boards and filth of the uncertain train which had carried us +from Stretinsk, and were in a fit frame of mind to enjoy its luxuries +and to overlook its defects. Nor were we sorry to leave Irkutsk, for +though it is a remarkable place to be found so far from the confines of +civilization, yet it has few attractions to long beguile the traveller; +and the stifling dust of the streets, which never seem to be watered, +obscure the attractions it does possess. + +Shortly before our arrival news had come of the serious disturbances +in China, and troops were being enrolled and equipped and hurried to +the eastern coast in feverish haste. The whole square in front of +the Hôtel de Russie was filled with peasants in their red blouses and +top-boots, each with his tea-kettle and little bag of poor belongings. +These peasants were to be shipped off that day as food for Chinese +powder, if so be the Celestials have any powder left by the time these +Moujiks reach Blagavestchensk or, later, Port Arthur. The whole city +was full of rumors of war, and, though we could not read the Russian +papers, or know the extent of the trouble, the air seemed vibrant with +battle. + +We were told that the train we had taken over the Trans-Baikal road +would be the last passenger train that would be allowed to go through +for six weeks. How we blessed our fortunate stars that we were not +stranded in Stretinsk for six times seven days! We were told also that +between Omsk and Irkutsk were twelve trains loaded with soldiers, bound +for Manchuria, and that no private telegram to Vladivostock could +be delivered within a week, so hot were the wires with government +despatches. + +Some of these reports were true and some were exaggerated, but +evidently China’s last days had come, we thought, as we boarded the +_train de luxe_, and Russia intends to be in at the death. + + + + +XIV + +A SIBERIAN _TRAIN DE LUXE_ + + +The Paris Exposition has made famous the Siberian _train de luxe_, +with its moving panorama, its terminal stations at St. Petersburg +and Peking, and its dinners at seven francs per head. The newspaper +correspondent, too, who has seen it only in his mind’s eye, as he sat +at his own cosey fireside rehashing second-hand descriptions of its +magnificence, has done his share to advertise it, until the wondering +world has an idea that it is a veritable Waldorf-Astoria on wheels, +before which all Empire State expresses on the American continent must +hide their diminished heads. We read of library-cars and bath-cars, +gymnasium-cars where one can make a century run on a stationary +bicycle, elegant dinners, barber-shops where passengers receive a +free shave every morning, pianos, and other luxuries too numerous to +mention. + +[Illustration: ONE OF THE BEAUTIFUL CHURCHES OF IRKUTSK] + +As a matter of fact, the Siberian _train de luxe_, at least as it +started from Irkutsk on the 29th day of June, in the year of our +Lord 1900, was a rather shabby vestibuled train of three sleepers, a +diner, and a baggage-car. It was luxurious, indeed, compared with the +fourth-class emigrant train on which we had been journeying, but it +is still many degrees behind the best American trains. It should be +remarked, however, that the best cars had been sent to Paris for the +Exposition, and it is doubtless true that the train we took is somewhat +below the average of the Siberian _trains de luxe_. It is well worth +describing, however, as an important link in the great chain that +connects the Atlantic and the Pacific in this new way around the world. + +First, and very naturally, comes the engine of Russian make, with +a great flaring smoke-stack for burning wood. Next to it is the +baggage-car with one end fitted with a bath-tub, where dusty travellers +can enjoy a refreshing bath on payment of a rouble and a half +(seventy-five cents), a very high price to be sure compared with the +rate charged for transportation; but then the scarcest and dearest +thing throughout Siberia we found to be cold water, either for drinking +or bathing purposes. + +Following the baggage-car was the dining-car, which was also divided +into two sections, half being occupied with small tables that seat +two and four each, and the other half fitted with easy-chairs for +the smokers and provided with ample windows for observation. In the +smoking-room was a small library of, perhaps, fifty books in the +Russian, French, and German languages, but nothing in English, except +two or three discarded fifth-rate novels in paper covers, evidently +contributed by previous travellers. + +In the dining-car, two _table d’hôte_ meals were provided: a lunch +of two courses at one o’clock, which cost one rouble, and a dinner at +six of four courses, for a rouble and a quarter. At other times of day +passengers could order what they pleased _à la carte_ from a limited +bill of fare. + +Behind the dining-car came a second-class sleeping-car, then a +first-class sleeper, and, last of all, another second-class sleeper. + +These cars are all divided into compartments, or little staterooms, +holding two or four people each, with a window, a table, and a wide and +very comfortable berth for each person. The cars are all handsomely +carpeted and upholstered in blue plush, covered, for the sake of +protection, with red-striped denim. In each stateroom were convenient +racks and hooks for the disposal of clothes and baggage, and in every +way one could make himself as comfortable and have almost as much room +as in an ocean steamer’s cabin. + +For two friends travelling together, or for a small family of three, +as in my own case, this arrangement is far superior to America’s more +promiscuous and public Pullman sleeping-car. For individuals travelling +alone, the Pullman plan has some decided advantages, if one does not +care to be cooped up in narrow quarters for eight or nine days with +any chance stranger who may be assigned to the same stateroom. The +Pullman cars, too, economize space, for while from forty to forty-eight +people can sleep in a Pullman car when crowded, only eighteen can find +“lying-down room,” in a Siberian sleeper. + +One curiosity of this particular _train de luxe_ was that the first and +second class cars were precisely alike in every particular. In amount +of room, fittings, upholstery, and comforts of every description, there +was not the slightest difference between the three sleeping-cars that +composed our train, while the difference of price was nearly forty +roubles in favor of the second-class. One would think that, these +being the facts, the second-class cars would be overcrowded and the +first-class would be empty. Such was not the case on this train at +least, for I found every cabin in the first-class taken, and was able +to get a large four-berth stateroom in one of the second-class cars for +little more than I would pay for two berths in the first-class car. + +[Illustration: A PART OF OUR _TRAIN DE LUXE_] + +At the most, the fares in Siberia are remarkably cheap. For the whole +stateroom I paid less than one hundred and twenty dollars from Irkutsk +to Moscow, a distance of three thousand three hundred and fifty miles; +this included four fares and the supplementary price of the _train de +luxe_. For the same accommodations in a Pullman car across the American +continent (a shorter distance) I should have paid at least five hundred +dollars. The full first-class fare in the _train de luxe_ is about +fifty dollars, while the second-class fares are less than thirty +dollars. By the ordinary trains a considerable saving is effected over +these very cheap rates. + +Each car has its porter, who can usually speak German or French in +addition to Russian, but the specimens that we saw were very lazy and +inefficient fellows compared with the deft and obliging “George” who +attends to one’s wants in a Pullman car. Our porters on the _train de +luxe_ never thought of sweeping or dusting the staterooms, and seemed +to think it an imposition to be asked to thoroughly make up the berths +for day travel, preferring to leave the beds made up by day that they +might have less trouble at night. All day long the lazy porters would +loll about on their seats in the middle of the car, doing as little +as possible, and apparently begrudging that little. Twice a week the +bed linen is changed. Ample washrooms, with a single roller towel, for +all guests who do not furnish their own, complete the equipment of the +Siberian sleeper. + +My excuse for this somewhat minute description of these accommodations +is that it will be welcomed by future travellers who have to spend at +least eight and one-half days in their little room on wheels. + +It must not be thought that for all its name and fame the “Siberian +Special” is a lightning express. In speed it would be outstripped, +during all the early part of the journey, by any “huckleberry train” in +America. Fourteen miles an hour, including stops, was all it pretended +to make during the first five days from Irkutsk. The road-bed is new, +the rails are light, and as a consequence the train plods along at a +pace which an able-bodied cowboy on his bronco would outstrip. In fact +I saw, one evening, a race between our famous train and a Siberian +“cow-puncher,” in which, for two miles or more, the horseman more than +held his own. Then he pulled up with a careless wave of his hat, as +though he did not consider it worth while to race any longer with so +slow a rival. + +The stops at the stations, too, seem most unnecessarily protracted for +such a train, which might be supposed to have the right of way. Never +less than ten minutes, and more often fifteen or twenty, our patient +locomotive would stand panting at every little platform in the wilds +before the station-master would ring his welcome bell, to tell it that +it might shriek its farewell and proceed on its way. + +For a number of miles after leaving Irkutsk, the railway follows the +windings of the swift-flowing Angara, and then, leaving the river, +strikes off across the interminable wooded prairies that line so much +of the track to Moscow. The weather was exceedingly hot during the +first four or five days of the journey, the thermometers in the cars +frequently registering over ninety degrees Fahrenheit. If one takes +the Siberian route to avoid the heat of the Red Sea in summer, he will +not gain much, though, to be sure, the cool nights make the Siberian +journey more tolerable. Moreover, the heat, much of the time, was of +the damp, “muggy” variety so trying to bear. + +[Illustration: A VIEW ON THE ANGARA, NEAR IRKUTSK] + +A plague of flies, which would have made even Pharaoh quail, added +much to the minor discomforts of the trip, though they did not afflict +the passengers within the cars as sorely as when they ventured out +upon the platform. Here they were, indeed, intolerable, and set every +pair of hands revolving about a tormented head like a windmill in a +gale. The most obnoxious insect was a little black gnat, much like +the midge of the Adirondacks, which in clouds filled the air, and +filled as well eyes, and nose, and ears of any venturesome traveller +that left the comparative refuge of his car. The natives have learned +to protect themselves against these pests by wearing veils of black +mosquito netting day and night. For fully fifteen hundred miles almost +every man, woman, and child we met was thus protected, and it gave a +peculiarly solemn and lugubrious aspect to the little villages and +stations to see every one peering at you through a mask of black +netting. In this funereal attire every Siberian looked as though +he had lost every friend in the world, or was about to attend his +own obsequies. Trainmen working on the track, flagmen signalling +the engineer, women with bottles of milk and loaves of bread, +station-masters in bright official uniforms, little tow-headed children +with bare feet, all had gone into mourning because of the midges. + +At every station were country hucksters at a little stand, ready to +sell the few products of the farms to the hungry travellers. They did +not do much business, naturally, with the passengers of the _train de +luxe_, who had their own dining-car, but with the regular trains or +the frequent special emigrant or military trains they had a rushing +trade. As we approached the European frontier, prices of these country +comestibles fell, and boiled eggs were to be bought for half a cent +each, and a very considerable loaf of bread for two cents and a half, +while milk, fried fish, chunks of roast meat, and kvass, or Russian +pop-beer, were proportionately cheap. + +[Illustration: A TRAINMAN WHO HAS TAKEN THE VEIL] + +At almost every siding we passed a long train laden with emigrants or +soldiers on their way to China, for the Siberian reserves had been +called out. The latter were stalwart, rough, honest-looking fellows, +who evidently had left their little farms at a moment’s notice to +serve their country. They seemed to possess no uniforms or equipments, +though, to be sure, these may have been stored in the close box-cars +that accompanied each train. They wore their peasants’ red blouses +and loose breeches. Many of them were barefooted, and some of them +were hatless and ragged, but, before they meet the Chinese, these raw +recruits will doubtless be licked into shape by the drill-masters, +uniformed and armed, and made into very presentable soldiers. They +certainly have the requisite brawn, if not the brain. I was surprised +to see that there seemed to be few young men among them, scarcely any +under thirty, while most looked to be over forty. + +The emigrants were weighted with more _impedimenta_ than the soldiers, +but even their household belongings were pitifully scant. Every day +we passed half a dozen long trainloads of men, women, and children +on their way to the new Eldorado on the banks of the Amour. Most of +them were too poor to afford even the hard comfort of a third or +fourth class car, and they were pigged in together in ordinary box +freight-cars, which were marked on the outside to carry “twelve horses +or twenty-four men.” Still they did not seem discontented, much less +hopeless, but at every little station jumped from their stifling boxes +and raced for the hot-water tank, which a paternal government always +kept steaming, free of charge. Here they filled their tin pails and +made their inevitable “chi” (tea), on which, supplemented by liberal +portions of black bread, they chiefly subsist. + +Sometimes we indulged in the luxury of giving the little emigrating +urchins, bound for a far-off land, a few kopeks, when the gratitude of +the parents was touching to see. Rushing from the car, they would +sometimes seize our hands and kiss them in the courtly old Russian +style, as though we had bestowed a king’s ransom on their offspring, +and then as the trains parted, going east and west, would tumble back +into their fifth-class boxes, while we would return to our compartments +feeling as we reached them that he would be a thankless man indeed who, +with such contrasts in view, should ever grumble again at the minor +discomforts of a _train de luxe_. + +[Illustration: SIBERIAN RAILWAY NEAR THE ASIATIC BORDER] + + + + +XV + +OUT OF ASIA INTO EUROPE + + +The long journey in the _train de luxe_ from Irkutsk to St. Petersburg, +especially the Siberian part of the journey, does not afford a great +variety of scenery or incident. But, if somewhat monotonous, it is a +pleasing and gentle monotony. There is not a mile of desert land in all +the five thousand versts between Lake Baikal and the Atlantic, or, for +that matter, between the Pacific and the Atlantic, by the way we have +travelled. + +There are no long stretches of sagebrush plain, such as Wyoming, Utah, +and Nevada afford; no “bad lands,” such as are found in the Dakotas; +no interminable stretches of wearisome, treeless prairies, such as +the Canadian Pacific traverses in Manitoba and Assiniboia. There are +occasional wide reaches of prairie or meadow land, but trees are always +in sight, and for the most part the road passes through a heavily +wooded country. Birches abound everywhere, with their graceful white +boles, and there are many forests of pine and poplar. The trees in the +vicinity of the railway are not large, the “monarchs of the forest,” if +there ever were any, having been cut off at the advent of the railway. + +The piles of cut wood by the railroad track impress the traveller +with the boundlessness of the forests. Millions of cords of clean cut +birch and pine, with scarcely a knot or a blemish, stand in neat piles +waiting the insatiable engine. + +Everywhere the land seems fertile, and, though but an infinitesimal +part of it is cultivated, it would all reward the husbandman. Great +flocks of sleek cattle roam over these natural pastures, but there is +room for a hundred flocks where one roams to-day. And all this vast +domain has been waiting for settlers at Europe’s back door during all +the centuries. Only now is the door fairly open, and the new settlers +are pouring through. America, meanwhile, has been discovered, opened, +and occupied; Australia has been discovered and great cities built upon +its seaboard; the tropics and the poles have been explored; and all +the time a great fertile domain, vaster than all Europe, and separated +from Europe’s swarming, overcrowded millions by no barrier of sea, and +but a low mountain range, has been waiting, almost tenantless, for a +people. But now Siberia has been discovered--discovered by the settler +and the home-maker, as well as by the politician and the autocrat who +desires a Botany Bay for his convicts--and a new and virgin empire that +can afford asylum for the surplus population of two continents has been +added to the world’s productive domains. Undoubtedly this enormous and +almost untrodden empire gives Russia a great advantage among the +nations of the world. Here is a vast new continent contiguous and near +to ancient Russia, a domain which cannot be seriously threatened by +any enemy, a domain which in the decrepit state of China requires no +fleets or armies to protect. At length Russia has awakened to a sense +of its value, and is pouring into it by the ten thousand every month +the peaceful settlers who will make her possession secure. + +[Illustration: ZLATOOST, A BORDER TOWN BETWEEN EUROPE AND ASIA] + +Between Irkutsk and Moscow the railway passes through a few large towns +of considerable importance. Chief of these are Crasnoiarsk, about +seven hundred miles from Irkutsk; Taiga, some three hundred miles +still nearer Europe; Omsk, about five hundred miles further west; and +Tschelabinsk, which lies near the edge of Europe, two thousand miles +from our starting point at Irkutsk. + +These places will be but names to most of my readers, and they will +not be much the wiser if I tell them such facts as that Omsk has forty +thousand inhabitants and Tschelabinsk has fifteen thousand. All these +towns, and many smaller ones that I might mention, are places of no +little importance in the districts of which they are the centres, but +they do not as yet cut much of a figure on the world’s maps. They +all have the characteristics of frontier towns, are built largely of +logs, but boast from one to twenty beautiful churches, which always +strike the eye and give them a character and a beauty which they would +sadly lack without the shining domes and brilliant crosses pointing +heavenward. + +Omsk is the most important place on the line of the railway between +Irkutsk and Moscow, and is the residence of the governor-general of the +province of the Steppes, and of a Greek Church archbishop. + +Tomsk is a larger and more important place still, but is not directly +on the Trans-Siberian route, being connected by a branch line at Taiga. + +The road crosses many large rivers during these two thousand miles +before it reaches the European frontier, and the cost of the great iron +bridges which span them must have been enormous. They seem to be built +in the most substantial manner, with piers and buttresses of massive +cut stone. These rivers belong to the great systems of the Yenisei and +the Obi, which in their upper reaches branch off into many streams, +each of which, in any other continent, would be a notable and famous +stream. But Siberia is so rich in great rivers that even the names +of these mighty tributaries are not of great interest to the reading +public. When Siberia shall come to her own and take her place among the +great populous nations of the earth, these rivers will add enormously +to her wealth and commerce. + +On the evening of the fifth day from Irkutsk we went to bed in Asia, +and woke up on the morning of the sixth day in Europe, and in the +beautifully situated town of Zlatoost. We found ourselves also in the +heart of the Urals, and the contrast with the flat plains of Siberia +was most refreshing. + +Lovely spruce-clad mountains towered above us on every side; a rushing +river, which the track follows for many miles, seemed to beckon us on +with its smiling ripples that glinted and glowed in the morning sun. +Great, open, park-like valleys and uplands lay between the mountains, +dotted with trees and covered with the greenest of grass, studded with +beautiful flowers of every hue. Altogether, for many miles, the scene +was one of rare loveliness, and was worth travelling a thousand weary +versts to see. + +The Russians call this region of the Urals the “Switzerland of Russia,” +and though it lacks the grandeur of the snow-clad Alps, it has a beauty +of its own which is exceedingly charming. + +All day long our road wound through these charming scenes, up hill and +down dale, usually keeping a rushing, sparkling river in view, until, +towards the close of the long day, the great town of Oofa, with +its beautiful churches and fine railway station, came in view. We had +passed the barrier of the Urals, and the day of loveliest scenery in +all the long journey had come to an end. + +[Illustration: IN THE URAL MOUNTAINS] + +Our deliberate train mended its pace very considerably after getting +into Europe, and, on the last three days of the journey, did almost +as many versts as during the first five. The engineer actually seemed +able to get by some small and insignificant stations without stopping, +and where we did stop it was often for less than a full half-hour. We +averaged fully twenty miles an hour after crossing the Urals, which +seemed like lightning speed after our slow and toilsome way in Siberia. + +On the seventh day of our journey from Irkutsk, the Urals had faded +into the distance, and the flat plains of European Russia were +substituted for the flat plains of Asiatic Russia. The country on both +sides of the mountains looks much the same, except that the European +plains are better cultivated and less wooded. They have evidently +known the plowshare for many a hundred years, and in early July were +smiling with luxuriant crops of wheat, and barley, and rye. Greater +Russia plainly is in no danger this year of a wide-spread famine. + +In some places hay-making had begun, and the great unfenced fields +containing hundreds of acres were alive with haymakers in gay attire. +The Russian farmers live together in villages, instead of in isolated +farmhouses, as do our husbandmen, and the business of cutting and +making a great communal hayfield was evidently an important matter +that brought together all the men, women, and children of the village. +Often forty hay-wagons, each with a span of horses and five times as +many people, were assembled at the edge of a field. The mowers, in long +rows, would then start for the other side of the great field, nearly a +mile away, cutting a wide swath as they went, while fifty Russian Maud +Mullers, in red and blue bodices, raked the meadows sweet with hay, +which yesterday had been cut. They seemed merry and light-hearted about +their task, and we could hear snatches of song and bursts of laughter, +and many a bright bandanna was waved at the flying train. + +The small villages did not strike me, as I saw them from the train, as +being superior to the Siberian towns. They are built largely of logs, +or of mud and wattle, and have low-browed thatch roofs, often much out +of repair. But every village, however small and shabby, has a beautiful +church, which contrasts strangely with the one-story thatch-roof huts +that gather around it, as if a brood of very diminutive chickens were +clustering around a big brooding mother hen. + +The large towns which we passed, as we drew near to Moscow, were +distinctly better built than in Siberia. Large blocks of brick and +stone, wide streets, and a general air of thrift and prosperity seemed +to pervade them. Samara is a city nobly situated on the banks of the +Volga, and has really a regal appearance on her crown of hills, with +her great cathedral and noble churches dominating all. + +The railway crosses the Volga, a few miles after leaving Samara, by a +splendid iron bridge, nearly a mile long. Even here, so far from its +source, this greatest river of Europe is a majestic, swift-flowing +stream, bearing upon its ample bosom great rafts from the pine forests +near its source, and many great steamers, which carry passengers to the +famous fair at Nijni-Novgorod, and other towns along its banks. Most, +if not all of these steamers, use petroleum for fuel, brought from the +great wells of Batoum, and huge tanks for the storage of oil begin to +form conspicuous features of the landscape near every large town. + +[Illustration: THE KREMLIN IN WINTER] + +Indeed, our own locomotive, instead of gorging itself with birchwood, +as its predecessors which drew the _train de luxe_ had done, took long +deep draughts of crude kerosene oil, which, it must be said, did not +improve its breath. Some of the engines I noticed at this end of the +line were Baldwin locomotives, a make which I had not seen since we had +left Khabaroffsk, on the further side of far Siberia. + +On the eighth and last day of our journey on the “Siberian Special,” as +our train was called in railroad nomenclature, we passed through the +large and commanding town of Toula, a great railroad centre, and also +famous for the splendor of its churches. The stations we passed on this +day were finer than any we had yet seen, and were often embowered in +trees until they looked like châteaus in lovely green parks. Peasant +women stood on every platform with heaps of little wild strawberries, +which they sold at a ridiculously cheap price, about two cents a quart. +Others had the first red cherries of the season, and others yellow +apples that had been kept in water for nearly a year, and that tasted +as if baked. Other vendors of delicious, sparkling koumyss, milk, +Russian kvass, and other more harmful beverages, also appeared upon +the scene at many stations. + +The devout character of the Russians was shown by the fact that every +third-class waiting-room had its shrine, with beautifully framed +pictures of Christ and the Madonna and some of the Eastern saints. +Before these icons often burned ceremonial candles, and smaller +candles were to be had by devotees for two or three kopeks apiece. +Rapt travellers, with uplifted eyes, were often to be seen crossing +themselves before these icons. + +We still passed frequent trains of Siberian settlers, and others +of brawny soldiers, “bearded like the pard,” and packed into their +fifth and sixth-class cars like the proverbial sardines in their +boxes. Occasionally a train of prisoners looked out through their +iron gratings at us, seeming to cast a murky shadow on the pleasant +landscape, as we thought of the dreary years of exile before them. +We saw no political prisoners, however, and even the criminals are +allowed to take their wives and children with them. These latter often +clung to the iron bars with their faces close against them, like so +many infant Charlotte Cordays. It must be said that these prisoners, +like others whom we had seen, fared a good deal better in their railway +accommodations than the emigrants or the soldiers. + +More and more cultivated and attractive the beautiful country appeared +as we approached Moscow, giving evidence in every smooth and fertile +field of five hundred years of tillage, until at last, promptly on +schedule time, 197 hours after leaving Irkutsk, the Siberian Special +rolled into the beautiful station of sacred Moscow, and our long +journey across all the Russias was practically finished. It is a matter +of thirteen hours further to St. Petersburg, and two days more by the +fastest train to London. Thence six or seven days more by one of the +Atlantic liners to New York, and our journey by this new way around an +old world was completed. + + + + +SOME FACTS AND FIGURES + + +As a multitude of friends and other correspondents have asked me to +give full particulars concerning the time and cost of this journey, I +will add a few lines to answer these natural inquiries. + +I was told by the most sanguine, before starting, that the journey from +Vladivostock to Moscow could be made in twenty-two days. I do not think +that it ever was, or can be, made in that length of time, until the +Trans-Baikal Railway is greatly improved, and the Amour and Shilka have +a channel dredged through their shallows; and that will be many a long +day yet. + +[Illustration: A SHRINE AT A RAILWAY STATION] + +As a matter of fact, the journey took us thirty-eight days, and, +allowing for probable detentions by rail and river, it cannot often be +made in less time. If it had not been for the kind personal interest +of the governor of Vladivostock, we should have been much longer +on the way than we were. I can well imagine that the trip might take +three or four months instead of as many weeks. The exact time of the +different divisions of our journey was as follows: + + Days + Vladivostock to Khabaroffsk (rail) 1¼ + Khabaroffsk to Blagavestchensk (boat) 5½ + Waited for steamer at Blagavestchensk 2 + Blagavestchensk to Stretinsk (boat) 12½ + Waited for train at Stretinsk 1½ + Stretinsk to Irkutsk (rail) 6 + Waited for train at Irkutsk 1 + Irkutsk to Moscow (rail) 8½ + ---- + Total 38¼ + +If we had found high water in the Amour, we might have saved three days +on the river journey, and if the bridge on the Trans-Baikal road had +not burned down so inopportunely, we might have saved two days more, +but it is difficult to see how more than five or six days could have +been saved by the most favoring combination of circumstances. + +I also heard many absurd rumors of the cheapness of the journey across +Siberia. One Russian official of note told me that the whole cost from +Vladivostock to Moscow, first-class, meals included, would be one +hundred and twenty roubles. I will give the fares as they actually were +paid, leaving out the odd kopeks: + + Roubles + Vladivostock to Khabaroffsk 17 + Khabaroffsk to Blagavestchensk 23 + Blagavestchensk to Stretinsk 29 + Stretinsk to Irkutsk 18 + Irkutsk to Moscow 98 + ------- + Total for fares (first-class) 183 + +To this must be added at least three roubles a day for living expenses +along the road, even by those economically inclined who drink no +strong liquors, which will add to the expense of a thirty-eight days’ +journey one hundred and fourteen roubles, making the journey cost +two hundred and ninety-six roubles, or, in round numbers, about one +hundred and fifty dollars in gold--not expensive, to be sure, for a +six-thousand-mile trip, but not so cheap as is usually thought. + +[Illustration: RUSSIAN TYPES] + +Those who are willing to travel in second-class cars and steamer +accommodations can save nearly one hundred roubles, or about fifty +dollars, on the whole journey. The second-class cars are entirely +comfortable, and very little poorer than the first-class, but the +second cabin on the steamers is not to be recommended. + +I have very often been asked whether I would advise others to take +the journey. That all depends upon their circumstances and travel +proclivities. + +For good sailors who do not mind a long ocean voyage, the trip +through the Suez Canal is certainly easier and more restful. For bad +sailors and those who fear the sea for any reason--and their name is +legion--the Trans-Siberian route offers many compensations. Moreover, +if one can command his own time, and is in no great haste to reach his +journey’s end at a fixed date, the Siberian journey will prove far more +attractive than to those who are pressed with engagements and must +make schedule time, for it is impossible to calculate exactly, or even +within a fortnight, the time that may be taken. A pressing engagement +in London, which I almost missed owing to the unexpected delays, +detracted not a little from the comfort of the journey so far as I was +concerned. + +Nevertheless, in spite of the discomforts and delays, I am exceedingly +glad to have taken the journey. It was an experience never to be +forgotten, and furnished memory-pictures that will never fade. I should +advise any one with plenty of time on his hands, who enjoys rail and +river travel, and who is not afraid of the inevitable hardships of a +new frontier country, to go and do likewise. + +The journey I have described was made at a most fortunate time, +immediately before the Chinese outbreak, which may change the face of +the world, especially of the far Siberian world. A week later, or a +fortnight later at the most, the journey would have been impossible +for many months. But doubtless before my readers wish to take this new +way round the old world the “Yellow Peril” will be overpassed, and the +Trans-Siberian route will be once more open to the travelling public. + +In these annals I have purposely omitted any extended reference to the +commercial and political importance of the Trans-Siberian Railway, for +the reading public has been flooded with speculations and facts, more +or less accurate, on this subject. There seems, then, to be little need +for their further exploitation. Moreover, history, during the next +decade, will determine these matters much more accurately than the +wisest prophet can forecast them to-day. + +When the Eastern Chinese Railway, connecting with the Trans-Siberian +road, is opened--if the Mongolians, who are showing such unexpected +ferocity, ever allow it to be opened--it will be possible, perhaps, +to go from Paris to Peking in two weeks, or, in time, even in eleven +days, as Mr. A. R. Colquhoun, in his excellent book, _Overland to +China_, points out. + +Even then, there will be many who will desire to take the journey I +have described through the lordly domain of Siberia, by rail and river +from the Pacific to the Atlantic, which for vastness of extent along +the same east and west parallels, for variety of primeval scenery, and +for wideness of view over “this goodly frame, the earth,” will never be +surpassed. + +[Illustration: MAP SHOWING THE AUTHOR’S ROUTE FROM VLADIOSTOCK ACROSS +SIBERIA TO ST. PETERSBURG] + + + + +Synopsis of the Russian Alphabet + + + ====================================================== + Form. | Proper sound. | Name. + =======+=================+=============+============== + А а | a _in_ f+a+ther | ah + Б б | b _in_ +b+utter | bey + В в | v _in_ +v+ein | vey + Г г | g _in_ +g+one | ghey + Д д | d _in_ +d+one | dey + Е е | ye _in_ +y+et | yey + Ж ж | z _in_ a+z+ure | zhey + З з | z _in_ +z+one | zey + И и | i _in_ s+i+ck | ee + І і | i _in_ +i+ota | ee + Й й | i _in_ o+i+l | ee s’krátkoy + К к | k _in_ k+i+n | kah + Л л | ll _in_ do+ll+ar | ell + М м | m _in_ +m+an | emm + Н н | n _in_ +n+ote | enn + О о | o _in_ n+o+t | oh + П п | p _in_ +p+it | pey + Р р | rr _in_ hu+rr+y | airr + С с | s _in_ +s+afe | ess + Т т | t _in_ +t+urn | tey + У у | oo _in_ m+oo+n | oo + Ф ф | f _in_ f+i+ne | eff + Х х | =ch= _in_ =Da+ch+= | khah + Ц ц | ts _in_ wi+ts+ | tsey + Ч ч | ch _in_ +ch+arm | chey + Ш ш | sh _in_ +sh+ut | shah + Щ щ | shtch _in_ sma+sht-ch+ina | shtchah + Ъ ъ | _mute_ | _hard sign_ + Ы ы | _approximately_ y _in_ pit+y+ | yairrwee + Ь ь | _half mute_ | _soft sign_ + Ѣ ѣ | ye _in_ y+e+t | yaht + Э э | e _in_ m+e+t | a + Ю ю | u _in_ +u+niform | you + Я я | ya _in_ +y+ard | yah + Ѳ ѳ | f _in_ +f+ine | feetah + Ѵ ѵ | i _in_ s+i+ck | eezhitsa + + + + +SOME NECESSARY RUSSIAN WORDS + + +The following list of words, of course, does not pretend to be an +English-Russian vocabulary, but simply the smallest possible number of +words which a traveller would need in crossing Siberia. It would be +well, of course, to know many more. But it would be possible for the +traveller to make this journey with the limited means of communication +with his fellow-travellers, restaurant-keepers, hotel-proprietors, +train-men and steam-boat officials that are here put at his disposal. +As it is impossible, of course, in a volume of this character to give +anything like a complete vocabulary, I have thought that a very small +fraction of a loaf was better than no bread, and that this was not one +of the cases when a little knowledge (of Russian) was a dangerous thing. + + +Cardinal Numbers + + одинъ, one. + два, two. + три, three. + четыре, four. + пять, five. + шесть, six. + семь, seven. + восемь, eight. + девять, nine. + десять, ten. + + +English-Russian Vocabulary + + Able (to be), быть въ состояніи. + accident, несчастніе. + act (to), дѣйствовать. + address (direction), адресъ, надпись. + adieu, прощай, прощайте. + air, воздухъ. + all, весь, вся, все. + America, Америка. + animal, животный. + apartment, комната, квартира. + apple, яблоко. + April, апрѣль. + as, какъ, такъ, такъ какъ. + ask (to), спрашивать. + August, августъ. + + Bag, кошелекъ. + baggage, багажъ. + barber, цирюльникъ. + bath, ванна. + bed (bedstead), постель, кровать. + bedroom, спальня. + beefsteak, бифштексъ. + bill (account), счетъ. + boat, лодка. + book, книга. + bookseller, книгопродавецъ. + boot, сапогъ, ботинка. + box (coffer), сундукъ. + bread, хлѣбъ. + breakfast, завтракъ. + business, дѣло. + butter, масло (коровье). + button, пуговиця. + buy (to), покупать, купить. + + Cab, дрожки. + cabman, извощикъ. + can (I), я могу. + carriage, карета, телѣга. + carry (to), носить, нести. + chair, стулъ. + chamber, комната. + China, Китай. + church, церковь. + city, городъ. + class, классъ, разрядъ. + clean (to), чистить. + clock (what o’--is it?), который часъ? + clothing, одежда, платье. + coachman, кучеръ. + coffee, кофей. + coffee-house, кофейня. + copeck, копейка, (копѣйка). + cost (to), стоить. + cure (to), лѣчить. + + Day, день. + December, Декабрь. + dentist, зубной врачъ. + dinner, обѣдъ. + dirty, грязний. + dish, блюдо, кушаніе. + do (to), дѣлать. + doctor, врачъ, лѣкарь, докторъ. + dress, пгатье. + + Eat (to), ѣсть, кушать. + egg, яйцо. + engage (to), уговаривать. + enough, долвольно. + Europe, Европа. + express-train, курьерскій поѣздъ. + + Face, лицо. + fact, дѣло. + family, семейство. + farmer, фермеръ. + February, февраль. + first (at), сперва. + fish, рыба. + flour, мука. + flower, цвѣтъ, цвѣтокъ. + foreign, иностранный. + fork, вилка. + fowl, курица. + French, французскій. + Friday, пятница, + friend, пріятель, другъ. + fur, шуба, мѣхъ. + + Girl, дѣвочка. + give(to), давать, дать. + glass (drinking), стаканъ. + glove, перчатка. + gold, золото. + good, добрый. + + Half, половина, полу ... + handkerchiefs, (носовой) платокъ. + hat, шлапа, шапка. + have (to), имѣть. + here, здѣсь. + hill, холмъ. + horse, конь, лошадь. + hot, жаркій, горячій. + hotel, гостинница. + hour, часъ. + house, домъ, жилище. + how much, сколько. + hungry (to be--), быть голоднымъ. + + Ice, ледъ. + ill (sick), больной. + important, важный. + impossible, невозможный. + inhabitant, житель, обитатель. + ink, чернила. + inn, гостинница. + instantly, немедленно. + + January, январь. + journal, журналъ. + July, Іюль. + June, Іюнь. + + Key, ключъ. + knife, ножъ, ножикъ. + + Lady, госпожа. + lamp, лампа, лампада. + landlord, хозяинъ. + language, языкъ. + lantern, фонарь. + large, большой, широкій. + letter, письмо. + light, свѣтъ, сіяніе. + linen, бѣлье. + little (a), мало. + lock, замокъ. + lodging, квартира. + lunch, закуска. + + Mail, почта. + man, человѣкъ; men, люди. + many, многіе. + map, карта. + March, Мартъ. + matter (no), бсе равно. + May, Май. + meat, мясо. + mend (to), исправлять. + mile, миля. + milk, молоко. + minute, минута. + Monday, понедѣльникъ. + money, деньги, монета. + morning, утро. + morrow (to), завтра. + Moscow, Москва. + mother, мать. + + Name, имя. + needle, иголка. + never, никогда. + news, новость, извѣстіе. + newspaper, вѣдомость, газета. + night, ночь. + no, нѣетъ. + noon, полдень. + north, сѣверъ. + November, ноябрь. + + October, октябрь. + overcoat, пальто. + + Petersburg (Saint), (Санктъ) Петербургъ. + pillow, подушка. + plate, тарелка. + please (if you--), пожалуйста. + post-office, почтамтъ, почта. + potato, картофель. + promise (to), обѣщать. + pronounce (to), произносить. + province (Russ.), губернія. + purse, кошелекъ. + put (to), класть. + + Quarter, четверть. + quickly, скоро. + + Railroad, railway, желѣзная дорога. + railway-station, вокзалъ. + rain, дождь. + read (to), читать. + refreshment, освѣженіе. + registered (letter), заказное. + repair (to), поправлять. + rest (repose), отдыхъ. + river, рѣка. + road, дорога, путь. + room, комната. + Russia, Россія. + Russian, Россіянинъ, русскій. + + Salt, соль. + Saturday, суббота. + say (to), сказать, говорить. + sea, море. + September, сентябрь. + sheet (bedlinen), простыня. + Siberia, Сибирь. + silver, серебро. + soap, мыло. + soup, супъ, похлебка. + speak (to), говорить. + spoon, ложка. + stay (to), оставаться. + steamboat, steamer, пароходъ. + stocking, чулокъ, носокъ. + stove, печь, печка. + street, улица. + sufficient, достаточный. + sugar, сахаръ. + Sunday, воскресенье. + supper, ужинъ. + sweep (to), мести. + + Table, столъ. + table-cloth, скатерть. + talk (to), разговаривать. + tea, чай. + thank (to), благодарить. + there is, вотъ. + thirsty, жаждущій. + Thursday, четвергъ. + ticket, билетъ. + towel, полотенце. + trunk (coffer), сундукъ. + Tuesday, вторникъ. + + Vegetables, овощи. + + Wagon, вагонъ, телѣга. + wait (to), ждать, пожидать. + waiter, служитель, человѣкъ. + waiting-room, (станціонная) зала. + waken (to), разбудить. + walk (to), гулять, ходить. + want (to), нуждаться, желать. + wash (to), мыть, обмывать. + washerwoman, прачка. + washstand, рукомойникъ. + water, вода. + way, путь, дорога. + Wednesday, среда. + what, что; какой; то что. + when, когда. + wish (to), желать. + woman, жена, женщина. + wood (fuel), дрова. + word, слово. + work (to), работать. + write (to), писать. + + Yes, да. + + +THE END + + + + + S. 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Cloth extra._ + + The Mystery Baby; or, Patsy at Fellside. By Alice M. Page. + + Zillah, the Little Dancing Girl. By Mrs. Hugh St. Leger. + + Patsie’s Bricks. By L. S. Mead. + + Salome’s Burden; or, The Shadow on the Homes. By Eleanora H. Stooke. + + Heroines: True Tales of Brave Women. By C. D. Michael. + + Granny’s Girls. By M. B. Manwell. + + Mousey; or, Cousin Robert’s Treasure. By Eleanora H. Stooke. + + Marigold’s Fancies. By L. E. Tiddeman. + + “Our Phyllis.” By M. S. Haycraft. + + The Lady of Greyham; or, Low in a Low Place. By Emma E. Hornibrook. + + The Gipsy Queen. By Emma Leslie. + + Kathleen; or, A Maiden’s Influence. By Julia Hack. + + The Rajah’s Daughter; or, The Half-Moon Girl. By Bessie Marchant. + + In Self-Defence. By Julia Hack. + + Regia; or, Her Little Kingdom. By E. M. Waterworth and Jennie + Chappell. + + Una’s Marriage. By Mrs. Haycraft. + + Tephi: An Armenian Romance. By Cecilia M. Blake. + + Christabel’s Influence. By J. 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Scarlett Potter. + + Out of the Straight; or, The Boy who Failed and the Boy who + Succeeded. By Noel Hope. + + Bob and Bob’s Baby. By Mary E. Lester. + + Robin’s Golden Deed. By Ruby Lynn. + + The Little Captain: A Temperance Tale. By Lynde Palmer. + + The Runaway Twins; or, The Terrible Guardian. By Irene Clifton. + + Grandmother’s Child. By Annie S. Swan. + + Dorothy’s Trust. By Adela Frances Mount. + + Grannie’s Treasures; and how they helped her. By L. E. Tiddeman. + + His Majesty’s Beggars. By Mary E. Ropes. + + Love’s Golden Key. By Mary E. Lester. + + Faithful Friends. By C. A. Mercer. + + Only Roy. By E. M. Waterworth and Jennie Chappell. + + Aunt Armstrong’s Money. By Jennie Chappell. + + The Babes in the Basket; or, Daph and Her Charge. + + Bel’s Baby. By Mary E. Ropes. + + Birdie’s Benefits; or, A Little Child Shall Lead Them. By Edith Ruth + Boddy. + + Carol’s Gift; or, “What Time I am Afraid I will Trust in Thee.” By + Jennie Chappell. + + Cripple George; or, God has a Plan for Every Man. A Temperance Story. + By John W. Kneeshaw. + + Cared For; or, The Orphan Wanderers. By Mrs. C. E. Bowen. + + A Flight with the Swallows. By Emma Marshall. + + The Five Cousins. By Emma Leslie. + + Foolish Chrissy; or, Discontent and its Consequences. By Meta. + + For Lucy’s Sake, By Annie S. Swan. + + Giddie Garland; or, The Three Mirrors. By Jennie Chappell. + + How a Farthing made a Fortune; or, Honesty is the Best Policy. By + Mrs. C. E. Bowen. + + How Paul’s Penny became a Pound. By Mrs. Bowen. + + How Peter’s Pound became a Penny. By the same Author. + + John Blessington’s Enemy: A Story of Life in South Africa. By E. + Harcourt Burrage. + + John Oriel’s Start in Life. By Mary Howitt. + + The Man of the Family. 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Monthly. + + The Yearly Volume coloured paper boards, +1s.+; cloth boards, +1s. + 6d.+ + + + + +Transcriber’s Notes + + + - Italics represented with surrounding _underscores_. + + - Bold text represented with surrounding plus signs+. + + - Blackletter represented with surrounding =equal signs=. + + - Small Caps converted to ALL CAPS. + + - Illustrations moved to nearby paragraph breaks. + + - Obvious typographic errors silently corrected. +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78829 *** |